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^•n6-byGeo.E.Perine.ii:^<"f^ 




THE 



LIFE 



OF 



Abram G 



AMES /IBRAM VjARFIELD, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



THE RECORD OF A WONDERFUL CAREER WHICH, LIKE THAT OF ABRAHAM 

LINCOLN, BY NATIVE ENERGY AND UNTIRING INDUSTRY, LED 

ITS HERO FROM OBSCURITY TO THE FOREMOST 

POSITION IN THE AMERICAN NATION. 

TOGETHER 

WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY, 

MOMENTOUS EVENTS OF HIS BRIEF ADMINISTRATION, ASSASSINATION, 

SURGICAL TREATMENT, THE SYMPATHY OF THE NATION, 

REMOVAL TO ELBERON, DEATH, AUTOPSY, FUNERAL 

OBSEQUIES, INTERMENT, ETC., ETC., ETC- 

By William Ralston Balch, 

Managing Editor of The American. 



PUBLISHED BY 

HUBBARD BROS., Philadelphia, Pa. ; '^ ^ 

Boston, Mass.; Chicago, III.; Cincinnati, O.; Atlanta, Ga.; 

Kansas City, Mo.: C. R. Blackall & Co., New York: 

World Publishing Company, Guelph, Canada: 

A. L. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco, Cal.: 

John Burns, St. Louis, Mo, 



J 

I 






Copyrighted, i88i. 



TO 
THE MEMORY OF 

JAMES A. GARFIELD, 

. THIS -voxjTJIMiie;, 

WHICH DOES BUT SCANT JUSTICE TO A NOBLE THEME, IS INSCRIBED IN 
FULL ADMIRATION OF ITS HERO BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



TO THE READER. 



No APOLOGY is needed for presenting you with the story of 
President Garfield's life. As our hero once said : "Things 
don't turn up in this world unless somebody turns them up," 
and the terrible days between that black 2d of July and the 
sad 19th of September, have prompted everybody to seek a 
closer acquaintance with the man who won each heart among 
fifty millions of people. The awful trial that came so sud- 
denly after his new honors he bore without a murmur. In 
that unparalleled affliction all classes of the people were 
drawn to him, watched by his bedside, prayed for him day 
and night through the melancholy hours of his illness, and 
felt as if he belonged to them. So I trust the story of his 
life will prove acceptable to you, command your admiration, 
excite your emulation and win all the sympathy within you. 

For the narrative of events prior to March 4th, 1881, I am 

indebted to the courtesy of the stricken President. After that 

date the facts have been gleaned from all available sources. 

Mistakes, I presume there are, but trust you will excuse them, 

as it has hardly been possible to make accurate history before 

the events therein described may be said to belong to the 

past. 

WILLIAM RALSTON BALCH. 

PHILADILi-BHIA, Fall of iSSl. 



CONTENTS. 
GARFIELD AS A BOY AND MAN. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

A Fire and its Result 2i 

CHAPTER n. 
The Home in Early Days 3a 

CHAPTER HI. 
Days of Earnest Work 35 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Pirate's Own Book 41 

CHAPTER V. 
Inter Folio Fructiis — Fruit between leaves 59 

CHAPTER VI. 
Garfield at Williams 75 

CHAPTER VII. 
A College President 89 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Eirth of a Political Career 104 

GARFIELD AS A SOLDIER. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Storm Bursts. 115 

ix 



^ CONTEXTS, 

CHAPTER X. 

FACE. 

At the Head of a Regiment 123 

CHAPTER XI. 
Opening the Big Sandy Campaign 133 

CHAPTER Xn. 
Hail Columbia's Soldier at the Battle of Middle Creek... 150 

CHAPTER Xni, 
A Steamboat Captain and the Capture of Pound Gap 167 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Off to Aid Grant 184 

CHAPTER XV. 
Garfield as Chief-of-Staff. 197 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Battle of Chickamauga. 208 

GARFIELD AS A STATESMAN. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
He Appears in Congress 241 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Ladder of Honor 247 

CPIAPTER XIX. 
An Ornament of Congress 262 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Orator's Power.. 269 



CONTENTS. ^i 

CHAPTER XXI. 

PAGE. 

Questions of Political Economy 278 

CHAPTER XXn. 
Arraigning his Enemies....* , 290 

CHAPTER XXin. 
A Visit to Lawnfield 310 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Family Circle 329 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Two Pen Portraits 351 

THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Preparing for Battle 359 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
The Battle Begun 374 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Second Day's Fight 386 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
War to the Knife, and Knife to the Hilt 399 

CHAPTER XXX. 
The Thunders of Oratory 418 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
A Day of Doubt 459 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

PAGE 

The People's Choice , 47a 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
How it Happened, and What was Said of It 486 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
A Tour oi Triumph 505 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Tlie March to Victory ^ 531 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
The Interim and Inauguration 541 



GARFIELD AS PRESIDENT. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
The Early Days of Garfield's Administration 572 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
A Time of Trial 590 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Hours of Suffering 610 

CHAPTER XL. 
The Story of the Bulletins 632 

CHAPTER XLI. 
The World Without 653 



.. CONTENTS. xili 

CHAPTER XLII. 
The Miscreant 664 

CHAPTER XLHI. 
The Lesson of the Hour 674 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
The Valley of the Shadow of Death 682 

CHAPTER XLV. 
The Agony Over 698 

CHAPTER XL VI. 
1 ne i-«ast /xCi«iiiiiiiM«iiiiiMi*iiifiMiif«f»ttt>i»fitfMttttttttit 75 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 



V 



Frontispiece — James A. Garfield. , - v^ 

Home of Garfield's Childhood 20 v^ 

The Mother of President Garfield 31 - ^ 

James A. Garfield at the age of Sixteen 43 ^ 

Garfield on the Tow Path 49- ^ 

Hiram College 91 

The Fight at Paintville y.... 143 

Battle of Middle Creek .'..... 153 

View of Pound Gap .i.... 165 

View of Middle Creek ;■.... 165 

Pickets on Duty 185 ^ 

Army Head-quarters 185 ^ 

The Battle of Chickamauga >.... 213 

Chattanooga Battle-field and Approaches X... 217 

General George H. Thomas .^... 223 

Missionary Ridge 223 

Block House at Chattanooga 227 ^ 

Head-quarters of Thomas 227 

Battle-field as it appears to-day 233 

Redoubt on Lookout Mountain 233 

General Garfield's Home, Mentor, Ohio 313 '- 

Parlor — General Garfield's Home 317 

The Wife of President Garfield 328- 

Dining-room — General Garfield's Home 343 v 

Reception of General Garfield at the Depot 509 v 

General Garfield Addressing the People 513 ^ 

Attempted Assassination of President Garfield 595 .- ^ 

By the Beddde of the suffering President 598- ^ 

< 15 - . 



V 



V 



7 



y/- 



V 



GARFIELD as a BOY and MAN. 



Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times 
out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is 
to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for 
himself. In all my acquaintance I never knew a man to be ' 
drowned who was worth the saving. 

Garfield'' s Address io the Students of Iliraj/t Collegt. 



I 



CHAPTER I. 



A FIRE AND ITS RESULT. 



A 



BRAM GARFIELD, worn out with a night 
of bitter toil, bead-drops of perspiration 
standing upon his forehead and coursini 






down his heated, cinder-stained cheeks, walked to 
his home with a weary step. All night long the 
fires had ravagfed the woods surrounding his little 
homestead, and all night long, assisted by the 
stout arms of his neighbors, he had valiantly 
fought the flames that threatened his all, twenty 
acres of good wheat growing on the land he him- 
self had cleared arouhd his cabin. 

The fires were now well down, the trunks of 
unburnt trees stood out against the sky, black- 
ened witnesses of destruction, and the wind was 
scattering the ashes hither and thither, as the 
farmers, knowing their scanty crops were saved, 
turned homeward. 

Abram Garfield, honest, hard-working farmer 
that he was, naturally had taken pride in his grain, 
a pride he could not afford to see humbled by tlie 
agency of a vagrant fire in the woods. When it 
approached the edge of his fields, he had gone 
forth to the fight, and after hours of exhausting 
work, succeeded in getting the better of his enemy. 



21 



o o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Reaching his cabin, he sank wearily on a three- 
legged stool that stood by the open door and 
raised his hat, that he might wipe away the per- 
spiration beading his forehead. With no thought 
but that of rest, he allowed the breezes that blew 
over his saved wheat fields to cool his face with 
their grateful breath. 

In this most natural act he contracted a severe 
cold and sore throat, the over-tension of his system 
laying it open to influences, that his otherwise 
hardy nature would have easily withstood. 

Chill followed chill, and inflammation set in, be- 
coming rapidly so intense, that his good wife Eliza 
determined to send for the only doctor the county 
boasted, a semi-quack, who lived several miles 
away. The leech responded promptly, came, and 
Vv^ith many a profound gesture that illustrated 
nothing so well as his profound ignorance, ordered 
a blister for the sick man's throat — it was applied 
with all the instant virulence of quack practice in 
an unsetded country. The treatment was In faith 
so heroic, that Abram Garfield shortly after the 
blister was applied choked to death. Feeline 
that the last great act of his life had come, he 
motioned his wife to his side, and said, with thick, 
broken utterance: 'T am ooinor to leave vou. 
Eliza. I have planted four saplings in these 
woods, and I r:ust now leave them to 3'our care." 

Then, giving a last, long look upon his litde 
farm as it stretched beyond the window toward 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 2 X 

the rising sun, he called his oxen by name, turned 
upon his side, and expired. 

The poor widow was stunned by the sudden- 
ness of her great misfortune. It had come upon 
her so quickly, it was impossible to realize at the 
moment of her husband's passing away, the full 
extent of her loss. Gradually, the iron entered 
her soul, she became aware of her loneliness. 
Bowing her head, she wept bitterly. 

" Do not cry, my mother, I will take care of 
you," said her son Thomas, a mere slip of a boy, 
who stood by her side, scarce comprehending 
what he said, or why he said it. 

" God bless you, my son ; I will try to be brave for 
your sweet sakes," said the stricken woman, as she 
wound her arms convulsively about the boy. Ris- 
ing, she called two little girls to her side, and ex- 
plained to them their loss — the death of their 
father. Tenderly she lifted them in her arms and 
bade them kiss the cold, calm face, for the last 
time. Then from the cradle she lifted the young- 
est, her baby-boy, James, almost two years old, the 
pride of her hearth-stone. The boy looked down, 
wonderingly, out of his great blue eyes at his 
father's face so still upon the pillow. With a 
childish, questioning look, he lisped, "Papa sleep?" 
The. mothei^s tears, flowing rapidly, was the only 
answer. 

Two days later, Abram Garfield was laid to rest, 
and the baby-boy was carried to the funeral in the 



2 A LII^E AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

arms of his uncle, William Letcher. The child, 
as was natural in one so young, paid no attention 
to the sad ceremonies, until he was brought beside 
the coffin to take a last look at the dead. Rec- 
ognizing his father, he called aloud for him, the 
tears following each other rapidly down his face. 
When the earth was thrown upon the coffin, the 
child continued his cries, until the whole company 
burst Into tears. 

Who of us that have passed through such 
a scene, can ever forget It ? The agony of a few 
brief moments then, often lives forever. They 
are to the mind what scars are to the body, and 
remain upon us while life lasts, teaching always, 
however, their lesson, just as the _ rock, when 
rent, discloses the gem, or the little obstacle that 
impedes the onward progress of the brook serves 
to make music and keep pure its water. So with 
Eliza Garfield. The influence of her chastening 
is upon her; It will be to her a softening thought 
and one to nerv^e her arm, for hers is a heroic 
soul — she comes from no common mould; she 
will come forth from the death-chamber well armed 
for the battle of life. In her veins runs the blood 
of the Puritans, and all the energy, intelligence 
and perseverance of that grand old race lies 
mineled in her frame. No danijer it' will fail her 
now ; no danger but that such a woman will suc- 
ceed ; no danger but that such a mother is a fit 
woman to raise a President. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^ 

Her lineage will guarantee this anywhere. L^t 
us look back a moment at the names that stand 
sponsor for her courage and devotion. When the 
Edict of Nantes was revoked, Maturin Ballou fled 
to America and took refuge at Cumberland, 
Rhode Island. The fifth in descent from this 
great man was James Ballou, who, after some 
vicissitudes, finally found a home at Richmond, 
New Hampshire, and a wife in the person of Me- 
hetabel Ingalls, of that place. Four children 
were born to Ballou, one of whom was christened 
Eliza. Soon after her birth, on September 2ist, 
1801, at the age of eight, her father dead, she re- 
moved with her mother to Worcester, Otsego 
County, New York. At the close of the War of 
181 2, a removal was again thought advisable, this 
time once more toward the West. Zainesvllle, 
Ohio, was selected as the Mecca of this pilgrim- 
age, and after the household effects had been 
loaded into heavy carts, the adventurous party set 
out. Six weeks were occupied in the journey, and 
six more in setding in the new home. At the age 
of eighteen, Eliza Ballou fell in love with the man 
whose death we have just described, Abram Gar- 
field. 

His lineage was as strongly marked by all the 
qualities that made " men " in the brave days of 
old, as was that of the woman he chose to be his 
wife. In the stout, strangely-shaped ship that 



25 ^^P^ "^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

broucrht the famous Governor Winthrop to the In 
hospitable shores of his New England home, to 

'' The stern and rock-bound coast," 

came also Edward Garfield, a Welshman of brave 
heart, who left his birthplace (Chester in Wales) 
for an unknown, untried home in the New World. 
The name he bore was probably in those days 
pronounced differently to the way it is now 
sounded, for, as old names always did, it meant 
something. In Anglo-Saxon it meant "field 
watch." "Was this prophetic of the military 
honors coming to the name of Garfield in later 
years? An ancient coat of arms, derived from 
Gaerfili Castle, in Wales, has on the shield a gold 
ground crossed by three red horizontal bars, and 
In the upper dexter corner (left hand looking 
toward tlie shield) on an ermine canton, is a red 
Maltese eross, {croix firmee). The crest consists 
of a helmet with a raised visor, above which Is an 
arm with a drawn sword, similar to the familiar 
device In the State seal of Massachusetts. The 
motto is ''III critce vinco'' (Through faith I con- 
quer). The Maltese cross seems to Indicate that 
the bearer had been in the Crusades, and the 
ermine signifies that the coat of arms was con- 
ferrcd by the king. 

Edward Garfield thought little of this as he 
landed in Massachusetts Bay. He had come to a 
country where such heraldic glories were of litde 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 7 

moment. He settled at Watertown, Massachu- 
setts, where he and some of his descendants He 
buried. Solomon Garfield, one of Edward Gar- 
field's descendants, soon after the Revolutionary 
War, in which the Garfields upheld fully the honor 
of their name, moved with his children, one of 
whom bore the name of Thomas, to Worcester, 
Otsego County, New York. It was here that 
Abram Garfidd was born. 

When the question came up in the quiet of the 
simple family circle : What shall we name the 
boy? not many minutes' discussion decided that 
he should be called after his uncle Abram, a man 
who deserved well of his country, for he served it 
well. He was amone the foremost of the farmers 
who, with their rusty rifies, hastened to repulse the 
British assault on Concord Bridge; and he was 
selected, with John Hoar, grandfather of the pres^^ 
ent Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, as witnesses, 
whose depositions concerning the British assault 
were taken at the request of the Continental Con- 
gress, which wished to show that the British gov- 
ernment made the first illegal aggression, and 
began the War of Independence. 

The young Garfield bearing his uncle's worthy 
name, was born in December, 1 799. When two 
years old he lost his father by an attack of the 
small-pox, and the boy henceforth was under the 
care of a mother who possessed a sufficient meas- 
ure, of those sterling virtues the women of our 



28 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Revolution always displayed, to give him a sturdy 
start in life. What education he gathered was 
obtained at the maternal knee, and his constitution 
became hardened and moulded on the broad fields 
of the family farm. As a boy, rugged and sun- 
tanned, he had made the acquaintance of a prim 
litde girl, born in a New England town, Eliza Bal- 
lon by name, who interested him not a little, and 
who occupied such of his moments as were given 
over to heart hopes and heart troubles. But 
Eliza Ballou moved West, and left Abram Garfield 
alone in his Eastern home. He was not long fol- 
lowing where his heart prompted, and in the au- 
tumn of 1 8 19 he journeyed westward to meet 
and win his bride. 

The leisure hours from his occupation — a con- 
tractor's work on the Ohio Canal — were agree- 
ably filled in with the courtship of Eliza Ballou, 
whom he in due course married. His contractor's 
w^ork over, the canal built, with a fair profit in his 
pocket, he moved to Orange, Cuyahoga County, 
and bought a piece of land. He moved practi- 
cally into the wilderness, for there was but one 
house within seven miles. Life here fiowed 
quietly on, just as in many another Western log 
cabin. The father manaofed his farm, and added 
an acre or two of clearing to it every year. The 
mother looked after the cabin comforts, and did 
what she could to make her children fit for the 
struggle of existence. The father prospered fairly. 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 20 

The little country town grew rapidly, neighbors 
gathered on other farms, and a larger, more vigor- 
ous life settled upon the little place. Everything 
went well until the outbreak of the fire mentioned 
at the opening of this chapter. The death of 
Abram Garfield was the first cloud upon a life of 
successful happiness. 

The children, who were around their father's 
death-bed on that eventful morning of death, 
were four, the eldest, a girl, Mehetabel, bearing 
her grandmother's Puritan name ; the second, 
Thom.as, called after his uncle ; the third, Mary^ 
and the last, the blue-eyed baby, James Abram, 
christened for his great uncle, almost as soon as 
he was born (November 19th, 1831). 

It is the life of this boy, James Abram Garfield, 
that is portrayed in the following pages. 



so 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER II. 



THE HOME IN EARLY DAYS. 



T~^LIZA GARFIELD had but a sunless 
i 1 prospect before her the moniing after her 
-* — ^ husband was buried. A small farm in- 
cumbered with debt, a dense forest only partially 
broken by clearings, a scattered population almost 
as poor as herself, made up her immediate envi- 
ronment. Putting aside the mistaken but kindly- 
meant advice of friends, she said the house should 
not be broken up, the children should not be scat- 
tered. Advisers yielded to her will, and she had 
her way. She took up tlie mantle of head of the 
family, and with that brevet rank which widowhood 
never fails to confer upon deserving women, she 
made herself thoroughly respected by her sterling 
force of character and hioh resolve to dare and do 

o 

for the weal of her children. Thoueh small of 
stature, and thirty years of age, she had the ability 
and energy of a larger and older woman. The 
farm was to be kept up, the home continued as it 
had been since 1830, the "four saplings" cared 
for until they were ready to be transplanted. 
Then, and not till then, would she give up the 
farm. 

This was a resolve that boded a harvest in its 




Mrs. Garfield— the presidents mother. 



JAMES /. GARFIELD, ^ j 

fruition. For there was nothing strikingly beau- 
tiful in the country where she dwelt, there was 
nothing remarkably attractive. The soil was not 
noticeably excellent. There were a thousand 
farms that surpassed it, and she had nothing to 
work with but energy and willingness. She rose 
early and retired late. Her work never sought 
her, she sought it. The homestead assumed a 
more homelike appearance each year, as new 
comforts were added by the thrifty woman who 
managed it. The young orchard which Abram 
Garfield had planted grew amazingly, and the 
trees fulfilled the promise of their planting. 
Cherries, apples and plums, and later currants, 
proved quite an addition to the frugal fare of the 
family, and the gathering of these was always a 
delight to the children. Often could young James 
be seen perched on the top of a tree, with a pail, 
picking cherries for his mother to preserve, or 
gathering apples for her to dry. Out-door life to 
the boy, who had already toddled through infancy 
and was now a rousing youngster of eight, pre- 
sented many an attraction that some children 
never seem to perceive. 

Indian histories, then the liveliest and most vivid 
of all border reminiscences, were often told over 
in the tv/ilight to the eager boy, eager for any 
news of that world to which his yet unformed fan- 
cies had carried him but which he was yet unable 
to people properly or quite understand. He car- 



32 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

ried his bright fancies into his play and every tree 
in the orchard received at his hands the name of 
some noted author of whom he had but imperfectly 
heard and still more imperfectly admired; or of 
some statesman who had figured in the scraps of 
American history which he had listened to; or 
better still of some noted Indian Chief whose deeds 
had excited the boy's admiration. The noblest 
tree of the orchard received in the boy's estimation 
the noblest name Tecumseh. 

As a boy he was always a busy spectator and 
assistant at the various harvest ceremonies; cider 
making, apple gathering for butter, corn husking 
and the like. So seldom perhaps has an apple- 
butter boiling on the border been seen by any of 
our readers that we may be pardoned perhaps for 
turninof aside a moment to describe one. In those 
days there were no carriages and but very few 
roads. Paths through the forest led from one farm 
to another, and it* was only the highways between 
the larger villages that rose to the dignity of 
township roads. Everybody rode on horseback 
and the men generally carried the women behind 
tliem upon the sam.e horse. In the fall when the 
apples were gathered it was given out far and 
near that there would be an apple-butter boiling 
at a certain farm-house and all the neifrhbors were 
cordially invited to attend. In the afternoon came 
the older women who pared the apples and made 
ready for the night. Large tubs full of pared, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 33 

quartered and cored apples stood about the 
kitchen, and a great black kettle was hung in the 
yard. As night approached youths and maidens, 
some on foot and some on horseback, came from 
miles around and then the fire under the ketde 
was lio-hted. The ketde was filled about two- 
thirds full of cider and a bushel of quartered ap- 
ples thrown in as soon as the cider came to a boil. 
It had to be unceasingly stirred with a long handled 
sdrrer lest it burn. With a maid to assist, a young 
man took charge of the ketde and standing face 
to face with their hands on the stirrer, they moved 
the apples about in the ketde and chatted of love, 
war or the gossip of the neighborhood. What 
man that has ever stirred apple butter with his 
sweetheart has forgotten it? And who of these 
cannot now remember with a thrill of delight the 
paring bees and the fun of coundng the apple 
seeds to know if the girl next you really loved 
you? And who but recalls the sweet blushes as 
the tell-tale seeds revealed the hidden secret, the 
agitated flight of the maiden to escape the shock- 
ing public announcement of the discovery just 
made? 

The frolics of apple-butter boiling were hardly 
forgotten before the corn-huskings lightened the 
cool autumn days, and gave to labor wings of 
pleasure. Here young Garfield was in his ele- 
ment, as he assisted everybody in the long line of 
men and women who, with many a happy jest, 



34 L^FE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

many a frolic, vigorously applied the shucker to 
the yielding leaf. Here, again, the youth and 
maiden were found side by side. She working 
assiduously, he less earnestly, though more watch- 
fully for fear some red ear not noticed might lose 
him the privileged kiss. They were happy days, 
those before the modern march of machinery in- 
vaded our harvest fields to shorten our labor, and 
to steal away all the sweet privileges that the cus- 
tom of decades had interwoven with it. But while 
they lasted upon the Orange farm of the Gar- 
fields young James took his share of the romping, 
for he was fond of it, or of the work, of which he 
was fonder. For there was not a lazy bone in his 
body, and he possessed the full boyish enthusiasm 
that oftentimes makes tlie whole world seem ob- 
tainable. 



I 



yAMES A. GARFIELD, 3^ 



CHAPTER III. 



DAYS OF EARNEST WORK. 



THE early spring of 1843 finds the Garfield 
family still humbly prosperous. The not 
over-productive farm yields a subsistence, 
a subsistence made somewhat more bountiful, now 
that the children are all able to do work that 
counts. The elder son works the farm with the 
aid of hired hands, and James, now twelve years of 
age, is beginning to help. He drives in the cattle, 
carries wood, hoes the potatoes and corn, builds 
fires and does whatever his little hands can find to 
do. The eirls assist their mother with her house- 
hold duties ; and the family, though poor, is thor- 
oughly happy. James has obtained some tools — - 
a saw, a chisel, a gimblet, and a shaving-knife — 
and with these he mends the chairs, puts latches 
and hinees on the doors, and is so handy, his 
brother says, he will " surely be a carpenter some 
day and build houses." 

In winter the children go to the village-school, 
and are fast acquiring the rudiments of knowledge. 
The mother helps them with their little lessons. 
The district school only lasts for a few months in 
winter, and often the weather Is so Inclement the 
children cannot nro out. Then the mother teaches 



n(^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

them herself, reads to them, and as the embers 
crackle and sparkle in the open fire-place, diffusing 
a gentle warmth, the family gathers about it, and 
little heed is paid to the driving storm without. At 
night stories are told, the scanty library over- 
hauled and its precious information repeated with- 
out end. There is one book which is a source of 
never-ending comfort, the Holy Bible, and from 
this the mother reads every night to her children 
selectinof those interestinof Bible stories which their 
young minds can comprehend. 

Among the books were two of greatest interest 
to young James, Weem's " Life of Marion," and 
Grimshaw's " Napoleon." " Mother, read to me 
about that great soldier," he says almost ever^^ 
night, and as the martial deeds of the first man of ' 
France are recited the boy's eyes dilate, his breast 
swells, and once he exclaims, enthusiastically ^ 
" Mother, when I get to be a man, I am going to 
be a soldier." 

At this the girls laugh heartily, and James, 
chagrined, says, " Well, you will see that I will be 
a soldier, and whip people as Napoleon did.'' 
The good-natured and matter-of-fact Thomas re- 
minds him that it is far better to be a farmer, and 
so the matter drops. 

The little school that he attends is not far from 
the house, and within its walls on due effort, he 
easily leads the boys and girls who are his class- 
mates. One day, he and his brother are caught 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ j 

whispering, and the teacher sends them home. 
Thomas stays around the school-house, hoping 
that somehow he will be forgiven. Jim runs right 
home and then rio-ht back ao^ain. When he comes 
into the room the teacher says: "James, I thought 
I sent you home. Didn't I ?" 

"Yes, ma'am," says Jim. 

"Well, why didn't you go ?" 

"I did go, I just got back," and, with a laugh, 
the teacher allows Jim to stay. He was very 
clever at this age, and not infrequently he would 
go to Sunday-school with the teacher and would 
sit on the desk and ask the boys Bible questions, 
such as these: "Who was the wisest man?" 
"Who was the meekest man?" "Who was in the 
whale's belly?" The boys did not know, and then 
Jim's superior knowledge would come into play, 
and he would gravely inform them, and always 
with accuracy. Thus the winter passes away, and 
the summer comes on all too soon. 

With the opening leaves, the summer's work 
begins. The manure- has to be hauled out and 
spread upon the land, then the land is plowed, har- 
rowed mellow, and made ready for the corn. Far- 
rowing out, or marking the earth for the corn, is a 
neat job, and often a boy has to ride the horse to 
keep him going straight. The dropping of the 
corn is always done by boys and girls. With a 
basket full of kernels on one arm, four grains at 
a time are taken out, and put in a hill. Some take 



38 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



a handful out at a time, and measure out foul 
grains with the thumb and the two front fingers^ 
lettlnof them sHde off into the hill. The hills must 
be put the same distance apart,. and the droppers 
generally walk in the farrow, planting the kernels 
just In front of the big toe, three feet being allowed 
between hills. The girls and boys run in their 
bare feet, and each one vies with the other in plant- 
ing the hills regularly and with expedition. What 
jolly races we have had along the corn rows to 
beat the hoers out and have time to orather the 
raspberries that grew in the fence corners ! Each 
corh-dropper is followed by a man with a hoe, who 
carefully covers up the seed, and grumbles inces- 
santly if the kernels are scattered too far apart. 

After the corn-planting season comes the stone- 
picking from the land that is to be mowed, and 
this must be done early, before the grass gets so 
high as to conceal the smaller stones. To prop- 
erly cleanse a piece of grass land from stones is 
no small job, and often have we seen the boys 
with their finger-nails worn Into the quick, and the 
skin so thin on their finorers that the blood oozed 
through. In those days, before reapers and mow- 
ers were known, the smallest stone would spoil a 
scythe, and every one had to be carefully picked 
up and carried away or placed in little heaps, 
around which the scythe men could mow. 

Planting potatoes, cultivating the -corn to keep 
down the weeds, hoeing potatoes, weeding in the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 3g 

g-arden, milking the cows, churning and butter- 
makii'g occupied the time until the grass was 
grown, and then came the hay making. Who 
that has ever lived on a farm will forget the jolly 
time when the scythes were brought out, and the 
whet-stones ranof a.^^ainst their blue-steel blades ? 
What music was sweeter than the song" of the 
mowers ? And v/hen the hay was turned to dry in 
the sun, we raked it into windrows for the pitch- 
ers. Then the wagon, with its wide ladders ; the 
bright forks, with their lonof handles ; the frao^rant 
odor of the grass, as it was pitched on the wagon, 
to be cauo'ht in our arms, and built into a lono- 
wide suo-ar loaf overhancrinof the wheels; the sun 
shining, the meadow-larks singing, and our own 
little sweetheart adding her tender voice, as with 
nut-brown hands and disheveled hair she rakes 
the fragrant hay! It is always the province of a 
farm boy to build the hay on the wagon, and often 
the little maid assisted, sometimes tramping with 
naked feet on a hidden brier, which causes her to 
scream gently, and necessitated a search for the 
nasty j agger. 

The haying season is speedily followed by the 
grain-cutting. "The harvest is ripe," is a welcome 
announcement to the husbandman, but not always 
to the farmer's son, for It means "strength, labor and 
sorrow" to him. Up at daylight to turn the grind- 
stone for the cradle-scythes, out with the lark to 
brincf inthecows and p-ctthe mornincrworkdone,be- 






AO LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

fore the harvesters begin. Then following the reap- 
ers and binders, to gather up the sheaves for the 
shocks, while the sun, each hour grows hotter and 
hotter, until the light quivers with weaves of heat. 
The brineine out of the ten o'clock piece, the carry^- 
ing of water for the thirsty men, and the toiling until 
the welcome dinner-bell rings! How often have 
we thought it never would ring, and the great, hot, 
red sun seemed to have been commanded by an- 
other Joshua to stand still in the sky. Then the 
sweet noon rest under the trees, the renewal of 
labor, the long, hot afternoon, with night at last ! 
What farmer-boy does not remember these days 
in his early life ? 

To James Garheld such life was pregnant with 
interest, engendered by duty. He was not an en- 
thusiastic farmer, but he was an enthusiastic helper 
of his m.other, and from the time he was able — he 
was always willing — he shouldered his full share 
of all the farm-work, finding his special province 
in the licrhter labors of seed-time and harvest. In 
the fall, "chores" about the barn-house, until the 
winter's snowy mantle covered the ground, and 
the district school-teacher summoned the boys and 
girls to reopen their neglected books, for another 
season. And so the years fled their even course 
until 1S46. 



^AMES A. GARFIELD, 



41 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE pirate's own BOOK. 

THERE was a wide difference between the 
Garfield boys. Thomas, the older brothen 
was quiet, unambitious, and aspired to 
nothing more than the honest, regular round of a 
farmer's life. James, the younger, was enterpriz- 
Ing, ambitious and pushing in his temperament. 
It is more than doubtful if he ever intended to be 
a farmer, and, probably, from his earliest years his 
brain was tenanted with visions of greatness. 
He had now become so expert in the use of tools 
that he could, while yet a mere boy, make or build 
almost anything, and his talent as a carpenter was 
in constant demand. Hardly a building or enter- 
prise of any kind in the section of Ohio where he 
lived, but bore some marks of his skill. He had 
a carpenter's bench, and on this he worked early 
and late, though his labor brought him but small 
financial return. The land on which the Gariields 
lived was so poor it yielded them but a scanty 
living, and James felt the necessity of "working 
out," as it was called, to increase the limited re- 
sources of the family. He was early and late in 
the village, and among the neighbors, seeking odd 
jobs for his dexterous hands, and soon came to be 



42 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CARE'ER OF 



known as the most Industrious lad in all Orange. 
His life was a hard one, but James was patient — 
being- willinof to "labor and wait" for the better 
times that he knew would come when he deserved 
them. 

His popularity with the citizens of Orange was 
great, and they often put themselves out to do a 
favor for the youth who was so firmly resolved to 
become a fully equipped man, and they gave him 
employment mornings, evenings and Saturdays. 
In this way he earned enough to clothe and main- 
tain himself, and also help the family a little. The 
summer vacation afforded him more time to work, 
and added largely to his earnings. He was sober 
and steady, a gaint in labor, and never seemed to 
even mve himself time to rest. The savino^s of 

o o 

his busy vacations, earned with a jack-plane and 
hammer, made a full purse to the lad whose pre- 
vious supplies of money had been more than 



meacrre. 

o 



From his earliest appreciable days, young Gar- 
field had been fond of books. Before he could read, 
he loved to listen to what others would tell him, 
treasuring every word his unpracticed memory 
could recall. When he was able to read, his ap- 
petite for it grew with every hour of his life. 
What he could obtain in the way of literature he 
devoured, not merely read, but re-read and re-read, 
until every word was more than a " twice told 
talc,' Books, jof adventure, tales of darini^, lives 







■■ f- 



i^ 



JAMES A. Garfield 



AT THE AQE OF SIXTEEN. FROM A PHOTOQRAPt^ 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. .^ 

of freebooters, seemed to fascinate his mind the 
most. The air of wild freedom, the nonchalance 
and absence of care with which pirates lived, was 
a great attraction to the boy's spirit, already equal 
in its boldness to the most darinof freebooter the 
sea ever knew. " The Pirate's Own Book " was a 
treasure-house of stories In which Garfield took 
an extreme, ever vivified delight. No matter how 
many times he pored over the book ; no matter 
how often he absorbed its wild life and seemed to 
breathe the very atmosphere In which his heroes 
lived and moved, it was ever a well-spring of 
pleasure to him. He shared in all the dangers of 
the pirates, he made the bivouac with them on the 
lonely beach among the shadows, he drank their 
coffee, he eat their biscuits and fruit, he stole with 
them on stealthy foot over the difficult paths to 
where the gold was buried from the last great 
prize, a Spanish treasure galleon, he boarded the 
stranger ship, he carried a torch that set her on 
fire with the best of them, and he joined with all 
a boy's ardor in the lusty cheer as the prize went 
down. He lived their lives over again, he was 
every brave chief in turn, and he loved the salt 
waves with the most enthusiastic of them all. 

It was perhaps fortunate at this juncture that 
there were no opportunities to gratify the wild 
fancies thus born within the boy's heart, fancies 
the black shadows of which he hardly saw. As it 
was the Pirate's Own Book only fired his ambition 



^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

to be something, and so did no harm. He saw too 
that his ambition could only be gratified with 
money and upon a larger field oi life that opened 
to him in the Cuyahoga wilderness or was con- 
tained within the bounds of Orano-e. 

One day he came to his mother and said, 

"Mother, I have engaged to chop a hundred 
cords of wood for twenty-five dollars." 

"But are you sure you are quite strong enough 
for such an undertaking?" inquired the careful 
woman. 

"Oh, yes," replied James, laughingly, "I shall get 
through with it some how." 

He went bravely to work, but soon found he 
had indeed undertaken a formidable task. His 
pride forbid him to give up. He had said he 
could do it and do it he would let it cost what it 
might. The task was that of a man, and his boy's 
streno'th beo^an to fail him before it was half over, 
but he toiled on day after day. At every stroke 
of the axe he could look up and catch the sun's 
glimmer on the slaty-blue waves of Lake Erie. 
It prompted all the imaginings of his young heart 
so deeply stirred by the Pirate's Own Book. He 
thought the lake to be the sea and already he 
saw himself a bold rover with a crallant crew, com- 
mandinga staunch black ship that proudly carried 
the black flag at the peak, floating out upon its 
restless bosom. And when he would lie down at 
night his day thoughts turned into dreams of the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. . ^ 

4/ 

sea and its life of wild attractiveness. In his 
dreams he was ever a sailor. 

When his wood-chopping was done and his hun- 
dred cords were neatly piled, he went to the New- 
burg- farmer, for whom he had worked, received 
his twenty-five dollars and carried it straight to 
his mother. Mrs. Garfield looked at the pale boy, 
and though proud of his manly achievement, she 
saw, with some apprehension, that he had over- 
tasked himself. She softly remonstrated with his 
ardor, urging it as a caution for the future. It was 
precisely this future that was on the boy's mind, 
and still strong in his sailor fancies, It was this that 
be had come to speak about. 

" Mother, I want to be a sailor, and I am going 
to sea," said he, abruptly. 

Mrs. Garfield turned pale, for she knew too 
well, alas ! this meant a separation for years, and, 
perhaps forever, from her son. 

" Nay, James," she replied, gently; "why not be 
content with us at home? the sea Is a hard life, and 
I fear I could not part with you just yet. The hay- 
ing season Is at hand, and your brother will need 
your assistance on the farm. I pray you give up 
this sea-faring idea for the present." 

James said not a word, but went about the work 
on the farm. He assisted In the hay-fields and 
the gathering of the harvest, but when It was all 
over he came ao-ain to his mother, and announced 
to her that he could no loncrer restrain his desire 



4"^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAR'EER OF 



for a life on the wave. He had resolved to imme- 
diately depart. Then he packed a few clothes in 
a bundle, and placing them on a stick across his 
shoulder, like all the boys in pictures he had 
ever seen, set out on foot for Cleveland. Amid 
prayers and forebodings, the poor mother had 
bidden him good-bye, and he carried with him 
her kiss and her blessing, as his only fortune 

He plodded along cheerfully. His heart never 
failed him, his courage never sank. He was always 
hopeful and In good spirits. After a tramp of sev- 
eral days, he reached Cleveland, and at once sought 
the harbor, that paradise wherein he believed 
he should find a career of Indescribable happiness. 
There was but one ship In port. This he boarded, 
and not without some trepidation inquired for the 
captain. 

His Idea of a ship's captain had been formed 
from his readinof, and then gilded with the honest 
goodness of his own nature. He Imagined that any 
man who was g-ood and o-reat enough to command 
a ship, must, at least, be a dashing, brave and 
gallant fellow, capable, when occasion required, of 
performing desperate ^eeds, but disposed to be, as 
a general thing, generous to a fault. To his ques- 
tion, where he could see the captain, a deck-hand 
replied: "The cap'n's below, he'll be up soon." 
Garfield, somewhat disturbed, waited the fulfillment 
of the deck-hand's Information. In a moment it 
proved true. The "cap'n" came on deck, an- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



49 



nouncing his coming with volley after volley of 
oaths that v/ould have done no disgrace to " our 
army in Flanders." A second after the oaths 
came the captain, and then he greeted the as- 
tonished youth : 

" What do you v/ant hyar ?" rolled out in gruff- 
est thunder. 

" I would like to ship as a hand on board your 
vessel," promptly replied our hero, as he recollec- 
ted his errand. His only answer was a renewed 
volley of oaths, fired directly at him instead of 
into space, followed by a suppresed titter from the 
men. Hurt, shocked and stunned, young Gar- 
field left the vessel. 

Once on shore, he sat down to consider his 
plans, and resolve on his next move. The sea 
after all did not seem quite as blue, and quite as 
attractive as it had earlier in the day. He went 
back to the city. As he strolled on, his philoso- 
phic mind reasoning on his situation, he chanced 
upon the canal. "As the canal is to the lake, so is 
the lake to the sea. I will go to work on the 
canal and learn there first." 

Armed with this new resolve, which now seemed 
to be reinforced with all the love and ambition he 
had originally felt for his sea-faring project, he 
sought out a canal boat. The Evening Star, 
Captain Amos Letcher, was tied to the bank. 
Stepping on board, he asked to see the captain. 
Amos Letcher looked into the boy's frank, open 



CQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

countenance and his bright blue eye, and was men- 
tally prepossessed In his favor. Letcher Is still 
living, and recalls his boy-driver to-day In the fol- 
lowlnor fashion : 

o 

" There was nothing prepossessing about him at that time, 
any more than he had a free, open countenance. He had no 
bad habits, was truthful, and a boy that every one would trus 
on becoming acquainted with him. He came to me in the 
summer of 1847, when I was Captain of the Evening Star, 
and half owner — B. H. Fisher, now Judge Fisher, of Wichita, 
Kansas, being my partner. Early one morning, while dis- 
charging a cargo, Jim Garfield tapped me on the shoulder and 
said: 'Hello, Ame, what are you doing here?' 'You see 
what I'm doing. What are you doing here?' 'Hunting 
work.' What kind of work do you want?' 'Anything to 
make a living, I came here to ship on the lake, but they 
bluffed me off, and called me a country greenhorn.' 'You'd 
better try your hand on smaller waters first ; you'd better get 
so you catT'r drive a horse and tie a tow-line. I should like 
to have you work for me, but I've nothing better than a 
driver's berth, and suppose you would not like to work for 
twelve dollars a month?' 'I have got to do something, and, 
if that is the best you can do, I will take the toam.' 'All 
right, I will give you a better position as soon as a vacancy 
occurs.' I called my other driver, and said, ' Ikey, go and 
show Jim his team.' Just as they were going to start, Jim 
asked, 'Is it a good team?' 'As good as is on the canal.' 
'What are their names?' 'Kit and Nance.' Soon after we 
were in the ' eleven-mile lock,' and I thought I'd sound Jim 
on education — in the rudiments of geography, arithmetic and 
grammar. For I was just green enough those days to imagine 
that I knew it all. I had been teaching school for three win- 
ters in the backwoods of Steuben County, Ind. So, I asked 
him several questions, and he answered them all; and then 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c j 

he asked me several that I could not answer. I told him he 
had too good a head to be a common canal hand. 

"As we were approaching the twenty-one locks of Akron, I 
sent my bowsman to make the first lock ready. Just as he got 
there, the bowsman from a boat above made his appearance, 
and said: 'Don't turn this lock, our boat is just round the 
bend, ready to enter.' My man objected, and began turning 
the gate. By this time, both boats were near the lock, and 
their headlights made it almost as bright as day. Every man 
from both boats was on hand ready for a field fight. I mo- 
tioned my bowsman to come to me. Said I : ' Were we here 
first?' 'It's hard telling, but we'll have the lock anyhow.' 
'AH right, just as you say.' Jim Garfield tapped me on the 
shoulder, and asked : ' Does that lock belong to us ?' 'I sup- 
pose, according to law, it does not. But we will have it any- 
how.' ' No, we will not.' ' Why ?' said I. ' Why ?' with a 
look of indignation I shall never forget, ' why, because it 
don't belong to us.' Said I : ' Boys, let them have it.' 

''Next morning, one of the hands accused Jim of being a 
coward, because he would not fight for his rights. Said I: 
'Boys, don't be hard on Jim. I was mad last night, but I 
have got over it. Jim may be a coward for aught I know, 
but if he is, he is the first one of the name that I ever knew 
that was. His father was no coward. He helped dig this 
canal, and weighed over two hundred pounds, and could take 
a barrel of whisky by the chime and drink out of the bung- 
hole and no man dared call him a coward. You'll alter your 
mind about Jim, before fall.' 

"The next trip, Jim was bowsman. Before we got to 
Beaver — we were bound for Pittsburg — the boys all liked him 
first-rate. Before we got back to Cleveland, Jim had the 
ague. He left my boat at the eleven-mile lock, and std'uck 
across country to his home." 

On this, his first trip, he had his first fight. He 
was holding his " setting-pole " against his shoul- 
der ; Dave, a hand, was standing a short distance 



£-2 LIRE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

away, when the boat took a sudden lung-e, the 
pole slipped from the young man's shoulder and 
flew with terrible force toward Dave. A loud call 
"Look out, Dave!" was not in time to warn him, 
and he was struck a painful blow in the ribs. 
Furiously enraged, he threatened to thrash the 
offender within an inch of his life, and with his 
head down, rushed like a mad bull at Garfield, 
The latter took in the situation at a glance, and 
stepping aside he waited Dave's approach with 
quiet confidence. When he was close, he dealt 
him a terrible blow under the ear, that felled him 
to the deck of the boat. In an instant he was 
upon him with his clenched fists raised to strike. 

"Pound him, him!" called out Captain 

Letcher, " if I Interfere. A man who'll git 

mad at an accident orto be thrashed." Jim didn't 
strike. He saw his antagonist was helpless and he 
let him up. Dave and he arose, shook hands and 
were ever after fast friends. This fight was, how- 
ever, but preliminary to many others during his 
three months on the tow-path, as the boys on the 
canal undertaking to bully him, it was constantly 
necessary to remind them that he wouldn't be 
bullied, which he always did most effectually by 
the virtue of his touorhened muscles. 

Such was his disposition, capacity and attention 
to duty that in the completion of the first round 
trip he had learned all there was to be learned on 
tlie tow-path. He was promptly promoted from 



JAMES A GARFIELD. -^ 

driver to bowsman, he was accorded the proud 
privilege of steering the boat instead of steering 
the mules. 

By actual count during his first trip in his new 
position he fell overboard fourteen times. This 
was serious. The malaria of the canal region 
would in all probability have taken hold of his 
system in due time anyhow, but these frequent 
baths greatly helped it. He could not swim a 
stroke, and aid to fish him out was not always 
forthcoming. One dark and rainy midnight as the 
Evening Star was leavinoj- one of those lono- reaches 
of slack water which abounded in the Ohio and 
Pennsylvania Canal the boy was called out of his 
berth to take his turn in tendinof bow-line. Bund- 
ling out of bed, his eyes only half opened, he took 
his place on the narrow platform belov/ the bow 
deck and began uncoiling a rope to steady the 
boat through a lock it was approaching. Sleepily 
and slovvly he unwound the coil till it knotted 
and caught in a narrov\^ cleft in the edge of the 
deck. He gave it a sudden pull, but it held fast, 
then another and a stronger pull and it gave way, 
but sent him over the bow of the Evening Star 
into die water. Down he went into the dark 
niorht and still darker water and the Evening 
Star glided on to bury him among the fishes. No 
human help vv'as near; God only could save him 
and He only by a miracle. So the boy thought as 
he went down saying the prayer his mother had 



56 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



taught him. Instinctively clutching the rope, he 
sank below the surface, but then it tightened in 
his grasp and held firmly. Seizing it, hand over 
hand he drew himself up on deck and was again 
a live boy among the living. Another kink had 
caught in another crevice and proved his salvation. 
Was it the prayer or the love of his praying 
mother that saved him? The boy did not know 
but long after the boat had passed the lock 
he stood there in his dripping clothes pondering 
the question. 

Coiling the rope, he tried to throw it again into 
the crevice, but it had lost the knack of kinkine 
Many times he tried — six hundred it is said — and 
then set down and reflected: "I have thrown this 
rope six hundred times, I might throw it ten times 
as many without its catching. Ten times six 
hundred are six thousand, so there were six thou- 
sand chances against my life. Against such odds 
Providence alone could have saved it. Providence, 
therefore, thinks it worth saving, and if that's so I 
won't throw it away on a canal boat. I'll go home, 
get an education, and become a man." 

Straightway he acted on the resolution, and not 
long after stood before his mother's log cottage in 
the Cuyahoga Wilderness, It was late at night. 
The stars were out, and the moon was down, but 
by the firelight that came through the window, 
he saw his mother kneeling before an open book, 
which lay on a chair in the corner. She was read- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, c 7 

incr, but her eyes Avere off the page looking up to 
the Invisible: 

''Oh turn unto me, and have mercy upon me! 
Give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and save the 
son of Thy handmaid!" 

Then she read what sounded like a prayer, but 
this is all the boy remembered, as he for the first 
time comprehended that his departure had crushed 
her. 

He opened the door, put his arm about her 
neck, and his head upon her bosom. What words 
he said we do not know, but there, by her side, he 
gave back to God the life which He had given. 
So, the mother's prayer was answered. So sprang 
up the seed which in toil and tears she had 
planted. 

For a short time he remained at home, com- 
forting his mother and endeavorini^ to reconcile 
her to his hopes of a sea-faring life. This he more 
than accomplished, and was just about to take his 
second departure, when the malaria took hold of 
him and he was seized in the-vice-like grip of fever 
and ague. For six months his strong frame was 
shaken. He lay upon the bed, the "ague-cake" 
in his side. Tenderly, indefadgably, his mother 
nursed him during his days of suffering, which her 
care and his iron constitution, at last permitted 
him to overcome. He was still determined, how- 
ever, to return to the canal, and thence to the lake 
and ocean. Mrs. Garfield well knew that any op- 



58 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CARREER OF 



position would be useless, so she argued that he 
had better attend school, for a time, at least, until 
he was able to resume severe- labor, and thus fit 
himself to teach during the winter months, when 
he could not sail. He reluctantly consented to his 
mother's wishes. So came about a orreat chanee — 
a change that worked for Jim Garfield a wonder- 
ful, far-differing future than that w^hich he had 
woven from his net of fancies, by the aid of the 
" Pirate's Own Book." 



yAAIES A. GARFIELD, ^^ 




CHAPTER V. 

INTER FOLIO FRUCTUS — FRUIT BETWEEN LEAVES. 

P to this time, In our hero's Hfe, there are 
no political impressions to record. The 
boy well remembers attending" a political 
meetine In the ever-memorable Harrison cam- 
paign, but merely as a curiosity seeker. Nor Is It 
to be recorded that he had any deep religious 
emotions. He went regularly, when at home, to 
the Disciples' meeting, first at Bentleyville, and 
later at the school-house near his home, where his 
Uncle Boynton had organized a congregation. 
The polemics of religion interested him deeply at 
that time, but his heart was not touched. He was 
familiar with Bible texts, and was often a formid- 
able disputant. One day, when about fifteen, he 
was digging potatoes for Mr. Patrick, In Orange, 
and carrying them in a basket from the patch to the 
cellar. Near the cellar door sat a neighbor talk- 
ing to the farmer's grown-up daughter about the 
merits of the sprinkling and Im.mersion contro- 
versy, and arguing that sprinkling was baptism 
within the meaning of the Scriptures. James 
overheard him say that a drop was as good as a 
fountain. He stopped on his way to the field, and 
4 



6o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



began to quote this text from Hebrews: "'Let us 
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of 
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil 
conscience.'" "Ah, you see," said the m.an, "it 
says 'sprinkled.' " "Wait for the rest of the text," 
replied James — "'and our bodies washed with 
pure water!' Now, how can you wash your body 
in a drop of water?" and, without waiting for a 
reply, he hastened off to the potato field. 

James was now seventeen years of age, but it 
would seem he had cherished little ambition for 
anything beyond the prospects offered by that la- 
borious life of a sailor which he had entered upon. 
It happened that during the winter of his ague- 
illness there came to Orange, to teach the district 
school, a young man named Samuel D. Bates — 
now a distinguished minister of the Gospel at 
Marion, Ohio — who had been to the adjacent 
township to school. He had attended what was 
then a high school, and known as the Geauga 
Seminary, and he and Garfield became firm friends. 
Bates was full of his school experiences, and find- 
ing his new acquaintance so intelligent, with true 
proselyting spirit, as was so common among men 
in tlie backvroods who were be^-innin^^ to taste the 
pleasures of education, he was very anxious to 
ta]:e back several new students with him. Gar- 
field listened to the representations of his eloquent 
friend and was tempted. He was too weak and 
ill to carry out his plan of becoming a sailor at 



JAMES A GARFIELD. r 

once, and he finally resolved to attend the high 
school one session, and postpone sailing until the 
next fall. It was this resolution made a major 
general, a senator, and a President of him, instead 
of a common sailor before the mast, on a Lake 
Erie schooner. 

Accordingly he joined two other young men, 
Wm. Boynton (his cousin), and Orrin H. Judd, of 
Orange, and they reached Chester, March 6th, 
1849, ^^^ rented a room in an unpainted frame 
house nearly west from the seminary and across the 
street from it. Garfield had seventeen dollars in 
his pocket, scraped together by his mother and his 
brother Thomas. They took provisions along 
and a (COokIng stove, and a poor widow prepared 
their meals and did their washing for an absurdly 
small sum. The academy was a two-story 
building, and the school, with about a hundred 
pupils of both sexes, drawn from the farming 
country around Chester, was in a flourishing con- 
dition. It had a library of perhaps one hundred 
and fifty volumes — more books than young Gar- 
field had ever seen before. A venerable gentle- 
man named Daniel Branch was principal of the 
school, and his wife was his chief assistant. Then 
there were Mr. and Mrs. Coffin, Mr. Bigelow and 
Miss Ablofall Curtis. Mrs. Braruch had Introduced 
an iconoclastic grammar, which assailed all other 
systems as founded on a false basis, maintained 
that but was a verb in the Imperative mood, and 



r LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

62 

meant be out; that and. was also a verb in the im- 
perative mood, and meant add; and tried in other 
ways to upset the accepted etymology. Garfield 
had been reared in "Kirkham" at the district 
school, and refused to accept the new system. 
The o-rammar classes that term were a continuous 
batde between him and the teacher. Here, 
thouo-h he did not know it at the time, he first saw 
his future wife. Lucretia Randolph, a quiet, stu- 
dious Q-irl in her seventeenth year, was among the 
students. There was no association between the 
two, however, save in classes. James was awk- 
ward and bashful, and contemplated the girls at a 
distance as a superior order of beings. 

He bought, soon after arriving, the second alge- 
bra he had ever seen. He studied it as well as 
natural philosophy. At the close of the spring 
term he made his first public speech. It was a 
six minutes' oration at the annual exhibition, de- 
livered in connection with a literary society to 
which he belonged, and he recorded in a diary 
that he kept at t!:c time that he "was very much 
scared," and "very glad of a short curtain across 
the platform that hid my shaking legs from the 
audience." Among the books he read at this 
time was the autobiography of Henry C. Wright, 
and the determined lad was much Impressed widi 
the author's account of how he lived in Scodand 
on bread and milk and crackers, and how well he 
was all the time, and how hard he could study. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5^ 

Fired with the idea, he told his cousin that they 
had been too extravagant, and that another term 
they must board themselves and adopt .Wright's 
diet. 

At the close of the session he returned to Orange, 
helped his brother build a barn for his mother, and 
then went at the hard work of earning money — 
for from the time he left Chester until to-day he 
has always paid his way — to continue his studies 
at Chester when the fall term began. He worked 
at harvesting, and secured enough to guarantee 
his continuance at the Geauga Seminary, and to 
pay off some of the doctor's bills incurred during 
his protracted illness 'of the winter before. On 
his return to the seminary the ''boarding them- 
selves" experiment was not repeated. An arrange- 
ment was entered into v/ith Heman Woodworth, 
a carpenter of Chester, to live at his house and 
have lodging, board, washing, fuel and light for 
one dollar and six cents a week, and this sum ht 
expected to earn by helping the carpenter on 
Saturdays and at odd hours on school days. The 
carpenter was building a two-story house on the 
east side of the road a litde way south of the sem- 
inary grounds, and James's first work was to get 
out sidinor at two cents a board. The first Satur^ 
day he planed fifty-one boards and so earned one 
dollar and two cents, the most money he had ever 
got for a day's work. He began that fall the 
study of Greek. That term he paid his way, 



64 



■LIFE^AND PUBLIC CARF.ER OF 



bouo-ht a few books, and returned home with 
three dollars in his pocket. He now thought him- 
self competent to teach a country school, but in 
two days' tramping through Cuyahoga County, 
failed to find employment. Some schools had al- 
ready engaged teachers, and where there was 
still a vacancy the trustees thought him too young. 
He returned to his mother completely discouraged, 
and greatly humiliated by the rebuffs he had met 
with. He made a resolution that he would never 
again ask for a position of any sort, and the resolu- 
tion was kept, for every public place he has since 
had has come to him unsought. 

Next morning, while still in the depths of de- 
spondency, he heard a man call to his mother from 
the road : " Widow Gaffield," (a local corruption 
of the name Garfield), ^^vhere's your boy Jim? I 
wonder if he wouldn't like to teach our school at 
the Ledge ?" James went out and found a neigh- 
bor from a district a mile away, where the school 
had been broken up for two winters by the row- 
dyism of the big boys. He said be would like to 
try the school, but before deciding must consult 
his uncle, Amos Boynton. That evening there 
was a family consultation. Uncle Amos pon- 
dered over the matter and finally said : "'You go 
and try it. You will go into that school as the 
boy *Jim' Gaffield ; see that you come out as Mr. 
Garfield, the schoolmaster." The young man 
mustered the school in the school-room, after a 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



65 



hard tussle with the bully of the district, who re- 
sented a flogging, and tried to brain the teacher 
with a billet of wood. No problem In his after 
life ever took so much absorblngf thought and 
Study as that of making the Ledge school success- 
ful. He devised all sorts of plans for making 
study interesting to the children ; joined in the 
out-door sports of the big boys, read aloud even- 
ings to the parents where he boarded, and won 
the hearts of old and young. Before spring he 
got the name of the best schoolmaster who ever 
tauofht at the Ledofe. His wasres were *' twelve 
dollars a month and found,'* and he "boarded 
around " in the families of the pupils. 

He returned to the seminary in the spring 
(1850) to find the principal, Mr. Branch, had left 
and was succeeded by Spencer J. Fowler, while 
John B. Beach had stepped into the shoes of the 
crusty, iconoclastic grammarian, Mrs. Branch. Dur- 
ing this, his third term at the seminary, he and his 
cousin Henry boarded themselves and put In 
practice Henry C. Wright's dietary scheme. At 
the end of six weeks the boys found their ex- 
penses for food had been just thirty-one cents per 
week apiece. Henry thought they were living too 
poorly for good health, and they agreed to In- 
crease their outlay to fifty cents a week apiece. 
James had, up to this time, looked upon a college 
course as wholly beyond his reach, but he met a 
college graduate who told him he was mistaken 



66 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP" 



in vSiipposing- that only the sons of rich parents 
were able to take such a course. A poor boy 
could get through, he said, but it would take a 
long time and very hard work. The usual time 
was four years in preparatory studies and four in 
the regular college course. James thought that 
by working part of the time to earn money, he 
could get through in twelve years. He then re- 
solved to bend all his energies to the one purpose 
of getting a college education. From this reso- 
lution he never swerved a hair's breadth. Until 
it was accomplished, it was the one overmastering 
idea of his life. The tenacity and single-hearted- 
ness with which he clung to it, and the sacrifices 
he made to realize it, unquestipnably exerted a 
powerful influence in moulding and solidifying his 
character. 

In March of this year, after having exercised his 
f'^^ freedom in reaching conclusions, he joined his 
uncle's church, the Church of the Disciples, or 
Campbellites, and was baptized in a little stream 
that flows into the Chacfrin River. His conver- 
sion was brought about by a quiet, sweet-tempered 
man, who held a series of meetings in the school- 
house near the Garfield homestead, and told in 
the plainest manner, and with the most straight- 
forward earnestness, the story of the Gospel. The 
creed he then professed, and which was then held 
by few, but now by about half a million followers, 
is as follows : 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



67 



1. We call ourselves Christians or Disciples. 

2. We believe in God the Father. 

3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living 
God, and our only Saviour. We regard the divinity of 
Christ as the fundamental truth in the Christian system. 

4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to its agency in 
conversion and as an indvveller in the heart of the Christian. 

5. We accept both the Old and New Testament Scriptures 
as the inspired word of God. 

6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and 
the future reward of the righteous. 

7. We believe that Diety is a prayer-hearing and prayer- 
answering God. 

8. We observe the institution of the Lord's Supper on 
every Lord's Day. To this table it is our practice neither to 
invite nor debar. We say it is the Lord's Supper for all the 
Lord's children. 

9. We plead for the union of all God's people on the Bible 
and the Bible alone. 

10. The Bible is our only creed. 

11. We maintain that all the ordinances of the Gospel 
should be observed as they were in the days of the Apostles. 

When the summer came he went again to his 
old trade, and was happy among the hammers and 
planes, the saw and chisel. He earned a fair 
amount, and returned in the fall to the seminary. 
During this fall he entered a school of book-keep- 
ing, penmanship and elocution, kept by Dr. Alonzo 
Harlow, located at Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga 
County, Ohio. Garfield was the doctor's janitor, 
paying his tuition in that manner, and at the same 
time earning his board of a neighboring farmer by 
doing chores about the place. It was here that 



^n LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

he took his first lessons in elocution, and received 
the first real encouragement to fit himself for pub- 
lic life. 

In the winter he taught a villaore school in 
Warrensville, receiving sixteen dollars a month 
and board. One of the boys under his charge 
at this school desired to study geometry. Gar- 
field had never eot so far in mathematics, but 
he bought a text-book, studied nights, kept ahead 
of his pupil, and took him through without his 
once suspecting that the master was not an expert 
in the science. This was the last of Garfield in 
Chester or its neighborhood. Writing many years 
afterward on the time spent here, he said : 

*' I remember with great satisfaction the work which was ac- 
complished for me at Chester. It marked the most decisive 
qhange in my life. While there I formed a definite purpose 
and plan to complete a college c^ourse. It is a great point 
gained, when a yomig man makes up his mind to devote 
several years to the accomplishment of a definite work. 
With the educational facilities now afforded in our country, 
no young n^an, who has good health and is master of his own 
actions, can be excused for not obtaining a good education. 
Poverty is very inconvenient, but it is a fine spur to activity, 
and may be made a rich blessing. ' ' 

In the spring he went with his mother to visit 
relatives in Muskingum County, and rode for the 
first time in a railroad train. The Cleveland and 
Columbus Railroad was then just opened, and he 
went to Columbus from Orange. Hon. Gamaliel 



JAMES A. G4RFIE'LD. 



69 



Kent, then representative from Geauga, showed 
him over the State capital and the legislative 
halls. From Columbus Garfield and his mother 
went by stage to Zanesville, and then floated 
eighteen miles in a skiff down the Muskinsfum 
River to their destination.* While there, James 
taught a spring school in a log building on Back 
Run, in Harrison Township. The cpal burned in 
the school-house he was* obliged to dig from a 
bank in the rear of the house. 

In the summer he returned with his mother to 
Oranee. He decided to ^o on with his education 
at a new school, established by the Disciples the 
year before at Hiram, Portage County, a cross- 
roads village, twelve miles from any town or raiU 
road. His religious feeling naturally called him 
to the young institution of his own denomination. 
In August, 1 85 1, he arrived at Hiram, and found 
a plain brick building standing in the midst of a 
cornfield, with perhaps a dozen farm-houses, near 
enough for boarding places for the students. It 
was a lonely, isolated place, on a high ridge divid- 
ing" the waters flowing into Lake Erie from those 
runninof southward to the Ohio. The Rev. A. S. 
Hayden was the principal ; Thomas Munnell and 
Norman Dunshee were teachers; the latter teach- 
ing mathematics and Greek. Recently General 
Garfield said, in an address : 

"A few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a class 
of three reciting in matliematics — geometry, I think- 1 liad 



^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

nerer seen a geometry, and, regarding both teacher and class 
with a feeling of reverential awe for the intellectual height to 
which they had climbed, I studied their faces so closely that 
I seem to see them now as distinctly as I saw them then. 
And it has been my good fortune since that time to claim 
tliem all as intimate friends. The teacher was Thomas Mun- 
nell, and the members of his class were William B. Hazcn, 
George A. Baker and Almeda A. Booth." 

He lived In a room with four other pupils, stud- 
ied harder than ever, having now his college pro- 
ject fully anchored In his mind, got through his six 
books of Csesar that term and made good pro- 
gress In Greek. He met, on entering the institute, 
a woman, who exercised a strong influence on his 
Intellectual life, Miss Almeda Booth — the Margaret 
Fuller of the West — a teacher In the school. She 
was nine years older than the young student, pos- 
sessed a mind of remarkable range and grasp, and 
a character of unusual sweetness, purity and 
strength. She became his guide and companion 
in his studies, his mental and moral heroine, and 
his unselfish, devoted friend. 

When the winter came he returned to Warrens- 
ville, and taught school again, earning eighteen 
dollars a month. Spring found him again at 
Hiram, and during this term. In company with 
Corydon E. Fuller, he aided Miss Booth In writing 
a colloquy for the public exercises at the close of 
the school year. During the ensuing summer 
(1852), he helped to build a house in the village, 
planing the sides and shingling the roof himself. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. yj 

In the fall, when the institute opened, one of the 
tutors in the department of English and ancient 
lano-uao-es fell ill, and Tames Garfield was ad- 
vanced to his place. Henceforward he taught and 
studied at the same time, his eye all the while fixed 
upon the bright beacon of a college education. 
He began Zenophon's Anabasis among other 
thines. That winter he became a member of 
President Hayden's household. 

The summer vacation of 1853 only brought 
harder work. In company of eleven students, he 
formed a class, and hired Professor Dunshee to 
give them private lessons for one month. During 
that time he mastered the Pastorals of Virgil, the 
Georeics and Buccolics entire, and the first six 
books of Homer's Illiad, accompanied by a thor- 
ouo-h drill in the Latin and Greek orrammar at each 
recitation. He was also a member of an active 
literary society during this month. When the fall 
term was fairly under way, Garfield went at it again, 
to hasten his preparatic:^ for college. He, with 
some other students, formed a Translation Society, 
that met at Miss Booth's rooms two evenings a 
week, and made a joint translation with her of 
the Book of Romans. The work done was more 
thorough than rapid. An entry in Garfield's 
diary for December 15th, 1853, reads: "Transla- 
tion Society sat three hours in Miss Booth's rooms, 
and aereed upon the translation of nine verses." 
To this class. Professor Dunshee contributed some 



^2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

essays on the German commentators, De Wette and 
Tholock. During the winter (1853-54), Garfield 
read the whole of "Demosthenes on the Crown." 

When he went to Hiram he had studied Latin 
only six weeks, and just begun Greek; and was, 
therefore, just in a condition to fairly begin the 
four years' preparatory course, ordinarily taken by 
students before entering college in the freshman 
class. Yet, in three years' time, he fitted himself 
to enter the junior class, two years further along, 
and, at the same time, earned his own living, thus 
crowding six years study into three, and teaching 
for support at the same time. To accomplish it, 
he shut the whole world out from his mind, save 
that little portion of it within the range of his 
studies; knowing nothing of politics or the news 
of the day, reading no light literature, and enga- 
ging in no social recreations that took his time 
from his books. 

The college question was now before him. But 
where should he gO'^ He had recently read some 
lectures by President Hopkins, of Williams, that 
had made him think favorably of that insdtution. 
But he had originally intended to enter Bethany 
College, the institution sustained by the church of 
which he was a member, and presided over by 
Alexander Campbell, the man above all others he 
had been taucrht to admire and revere. A fa- 
miliar letter shall tell us how he reasoned and 
acted : 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j ^ 

*' There are three reasons why I have decided not to go to 
Bethany : ist. The course of study is not so extensive or 
"thorough as in Eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too 
heavily toward slavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple 
parents, am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance 
with people of other views, and, having always Uved in the 
West, I think it will make me more liberal, both m my religi- 
ous and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, 
where I shall be under new influences. These considerations 
led me to conclude to go to some New England college. I 
therefore wrote to the presidents of Brown University, Yale 
and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had done, 
and asking how long it would take me to finish their course. 

''Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can 
graduate in two years. They are all brief, business notes, but 
President Hopkins concludes with this sentence : ' If you 
come here we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' 
Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, which 
seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled 
the question for me. I shall start for Williams next week." 

Some points In this letter of a young man about 
to start away from home to college will strike the 
reader as remarkable. Nothing could show more 
mature judgment about the matter in hand than 
the wise anxiety to get out from the Disciples' in- 
fluence and see somethlnor of other men and other 
opinions. It was notable that one trained to look 
upon Alexander Campbell as the master Intellect 
of the churches of the day should revolt against 
studying in his college, because it leaned too 
strongly to slavery. And In the final turning of 
the decision upon the litde friendly commonplace 
that closed one of the letters, we catch a glimpse 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 
74 

of the warm, sympathetic nature of the man, 
which much and wide experience of the world in 
after years has never hardened. 

So, in the fall of 1854, the pupil of Geauga 
Seminary and of the Hiram Institute received 
admission at the venerable doors of Williams. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, y ^ 



CHAPTER VI. 



GARFIELD AT WILLIAMS. 




HEN Garfield reached Williams Col- 
lege, in June, 1854, he had about three 
hundred dollars, which he had saved 
while teaching at Hiram ; and with this amount 
lie hoped to get through the first year. The col- 
lege year had not quite closed, a few weeks re- 
mained, which he utilized by attending the recita- 
tions of the sophomore class, in order to become 
familiar with the methods of the professors before 
testing his ability to pass the examinations of the 
junior year. He had a keen sense of his want of 
the advantages of society and general culture 
which the students with whom he came in contact 
had enjoyed all their lives, but his homely man- 
ners and Western garb did not subject him to any 
slights or mortifications. The spirit of the col- 
lege was generous and manly. No student was 
estimated by the clothes he wore ; no one was 
snubbed because he was poor. The intellectual 
force, originality and Immense powers of study 
possessed by the new-comer from Ohio were soon 
recognized by his classmates, and he was shown 
as much respect, cordiality and companionship as 
if he had been the son of a millionaire. His old 
5 



1^ 



LTFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



mates recall him as a big young man, quite Gcr. 
man In appearance — so strong is good Saxon 
blood, after centuries of exile from the Saxon 
land — blonde and bearded, strong-limbed, serious, 
but sociable, and with the Western easy-going 
manners, ready wit and broad sympathy going 
out toward all his fellows. The boys called him 
*' Old Gar," so readily did he assume the patri- 
archate of the college in the brief two years he 
was there. He boarded in club, and did not smoke 
or drink. 

The beauty of the scenery around Mechanics- 
vllle made a strong impression upon his fancy. 
He had never seen mountains before. The spurs 
of the Green Hills, Avhich reach down from Ver- 
mont and inclose the little college town in their 
arms, were to the young man from the monoto- 
nous landscapes of the Western Reserve a won- 
derful revelation of grandeur and beauty. He 
climbed Greylock and explored all the glens and 
valleys of the neighborhood. 

The examination for entering the junior class 
was passed without trouble. Although self-taught, 
save for the help of his friend and companion In 
his studies, Miss Booth, his knowledge of the 
books prescribed was thorough. A long summer 
vacation followed his examination, and this time 
he employed In the college library, the first large 
collection of books he had ever seen. His ab- 
sorption in the double work of teaching and litting 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

himself for college had hitherto left him little tiipc 
for general reading, and the library opened a new 
world of profit and delight. He had never read a 
line of Shakespeare, save a few extracts in the 
school readinor-books. From the whole rano-e of 
fiction he had voluntarily shut himself off at 
eighteen, when he joined the church, having 
serious view^s of the business of life, and imbibiniT: 
the notion, then almost universal amone relieious 
people in the country districts of the West, that 
novel reading w^as a waste of time, and, therefore, 
a simple, worldly sort of intellectual amusement. 
When turned loose in the college library, with 
weeks of leisure to range at will over its shelves, 
he began wdth Shakespeare, which he read through 
from cover to cover. Then he went to Encrlish 
history and poetry. Of the poets, Tennyson 
pleased him best, which is not to be wondered at, 
for the influence of the Laureate was then at its 
height. He learned wdiole poems by heart, and 
can repeat them now. 

After he had been six or eiofht months at col- 
lecre, and had devoured an immense amount of 
serious reading, he began to suffer from intel- 
lectual dyspepsia. He found his mind was not 
assimilating w^hat he read, and w^ould often refuse 
to be held down to the printed page. Then he 
revised his notions about books of fiction, and 
concluded that romance is as valuable a part of 
intellectual food as salad of i dinner. He pre- 



78 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



scribed for himself one novel a month, and on this 
medicine his mind speedily recuperated and got 
back all its old elasticity. Cooper's Leatherstock- 
in^r Tales were the first novels he read, and after^ 
ward Walter Scott. An English classmate Intro- 
duced him to the works of Dickens and Thack- 
eray. He formed a habit In those days of making 
notes while he read of everything he did not 
clearly understand, such as historical references, 
mythological allusions, technical terms, etc. These 
notes he would take time to look up afterward In 
the library, so as to leave nothing obscure on his 
mind concernlne the books he absorbed. The thor- 
oughness he displayed In his v/ork In after life 
was thus begun at that early period, and applied 
to every subject he took hold of. The ground his 
mind traversed he carefully cleared and plowed 
before leavinsf It for fresh fields. 

<z> 

Garfield studied Latin and Greek and took up 
German as an elective study. One year at Wil- 
liams completed his classical studies, on which 
he was far advanced before he came there. 
German he carried on successfully until he could 
read Goethe and Schiller readily and acquired 
considerable fiuency In the conversational use of 
the lantruaee. He entered with zeal into the llt- 
erary work of the college, was a vigorous debater 
and a member of the Philologian Society, of which 
he was president in 1855-56. The inllu- 
eince of the mind and character of Dr. Hopkins 



1 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



79 



was seriously felt In shaping the direction of Gar- 
field's thought and his views of life. He often 
says that the good president rose like a sun before 
him, and enliehtened his w^hole mental and moral 
nature. His preaching and teaching were a con- 
stant Inspiration to the young Ohio student and 
lie became the centre of his college life, the object 
of his hero-worship. 

At the end of the fall term of 1854, Garfield 
enjoyed a winter vacation of two months which he 
spent in North Pownal, Vt., teaching a writing 
class In the same school-house w^here a year be- 
fore Chester A. Arthur was the principal. Gar- 
field wrote a broad, handsome hand, a hand that 
was strongly individual, and the envy of the boys 
and girls who tried to Imitate it. 

At the end of the college year in June, Garfield 
returned home to see his mother, who was then 
livlnor with a daughter at Solon. His money was 
exhausted and he had to adopt one of two plans, 
either to borrow enough to take him tlirourdi to 
graduation at the end of the next year or set to 
work as a teacher until he earned the requisite 
amount; and so break the continuity of his col- 
lege course. He, however, did neither, but in- 
sured his life for eight hundred dollars, his brother 
Thomas undertaking- to furnish the funds on in- 
stalments, but, being eventually unable, the obliga- 
tion was assumed by Dr. Robinson, of Hiram, who 
advanced the money and took the Insurance 
policy as security. 



gQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

He returned to Williams in the fall, and was 
again active In his contributions to the College 
Mac'-azlne, the Williams Quarterly. Of his con- 
tributlons we cannot quote as liberally as we would 
like. We find three poetical producdons. One 
is a polidcal sadre, called "Sam," and contains 
the lines : 



' 'Twas noon of night, and by his flickering lamp, 
That gloated o'er his dingy room and damp, 
With glassy eye and haggard face there sat, 
A disappointed, worn-out Democrat ; 
His eloquence all wasted — plans all failed, 
His spurious coin fast to the counter nailed, 
Deception's self was now at length deceived, 
His lies, political, no more believed." 



i 



Another, cvldendy a squid at some college ^ 
prank, and is modeled on Tennyson. It is en- 
Lided ''The Charge of the Tight Brigade." The 
llrst verse leads off: 



Bottles to right of them. 
Bottles to left of them. 
Bottles in front of them, 

Fizzled and sundered, 
Ent'ring with shout and yell, 
r>oldly they drank and well, 
They caught the Tartar then ; 
Oh^ what a perfect sell ! 

Sold— the half J:tindrcd. 
Grinned all the dentals bare, 
Swung all their caps in air, 
Uncorking bottles there, 
Watchin;'- the Freshmen wliile 

Every one wondered ; 
riun'^cd in tobacco smoke. 
With many a desperate stroke. 



james a, garfield. o . 

-^ (Si 

Dozens of bottles broke, 
Thoi thev catm back, but not. 
But not the ha/f hundred.^'' 

The third contribution, in verse, we reproduce 
entire. It is entitled "Memory:" 

" 'Tis beauteous night ; Hhe stars look brightly down 
Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow. 
No light gleams at the window save my own, 
Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me. 
And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes. 
And leads me gently through her twilight realms. 
What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, 
Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed 
The enchanted shadowy land where Memory dwells ,'* 
It has its valleys, cheerless, lone and drear, 
Dark-shaded by the mournful cypress tree. 
And yet its sunlit mountain-tops are bathed 
In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffy, 
Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, 
Are clustered joys serene of other days; 
Upon its gently-sloping hillsides bend 
The weeping-willows o'er the sacred dust 
Of dear departed ones ; and yet in that land. 
Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore. 
They that were sleeping rise from out the dust 
Of death's long, silent years, and round us stand, 
As erst they did before the prison tomb 
Received their clay wit'nn its voiceless halls. 
The heavens that bend above that land are hung 
With clouds of various hues: some dark and c'lill^ 
Surcharged with sorrow, cast their sombre shade 
Upon the sunny, joyous land below ; 
Others are floating through the dreamy air; 
White as the falling snow their margins tinged 
With gold and crimson hues ; their shadows fall 
Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes, 
Soft as the shadows of an angel's wing. 
When the rough battle of the day is done, 
And evening's peace falls gently on the heart, 
I bound away across the noisy years. 



o^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land, 

Where earih and sky in dreamy distance meet, 

And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins ; 

Where woke the first-remembered sounds that fell * 

Upon the ear in childhood's early morn ; 

And wandering thence, along the rolling years, ; 

I see the shadow of my former self : 

Gliding from childhood up to man's estate. ■ 

The path of youth winds down through many a vale 

And on the brink of many a dread abyss, 

From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, 

Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf. 

And beckons toward the verge. Again the path 

Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall ; 

And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, 

Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along." 

The prose contributions were many, and upon J 
many subjects. During his second year, 1855-56, ■ 
he formed, with W. R. Baxter, Henry E. Knox, E. 
Clarence Smith and John Tatlock, the editors for 
the class of '56. In the opening number of his 
year, September, 1855, he supplied the Editors 
Table. How pleasantly he voices the trouble 
every newspaper editor or writer has gone through, 
when he says in his opening lines : 

^'It is, indeed, an uninviting task to bubble up sentiment 
and elaborate thought in obedience to corporate laws ; and 
not unfrcquently tliose children of the brain when paraded 
before the proper authorities, show by their meager propor- 
tions that they have not been nourished by the genial warmth 
of a v/illing heart." 

Speaking of the Quarlcrly, which was in those 
days a really high class magazine, he states its 
purpose: 



I 



JAMES A . GA A" Fir. 1. 1 >. v 



o 



''It proposes a kind of intellectual tournament where we 
may learn to hurl the lance and wield the sword, and thus 
prepare for the conflict of life. It sliall be our aim to keep 
the lists still open and the arena clear, that the knights of the 
quill may learn to hurl the lance and wield the sword of 
though', and thus be ready for sterner duties. We shall also 
endeavor to decorate the arena with all the flowers that our 
07i^/t oar^/e;is afford, and thus render the place more pleasant 
and inviting. We should remember, however, that it is no 
honor or profit merely to appear in the arena, but the wreath 
is for those who contejid.'''' 

From a brilliant review of the life and writings 
of the unfortunate Karl Theoclor Korner, that ap- 
pearecl in the number for March, 1856, we cut a 
single paragraph : 

" The greater part of our modern literature bears evident 
marks of the haste which characterizes all the movements of 
this age ; but, in reading these older authors, we are impressed 
with the idea that they enjoyed the most comfortable leisure. 
Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony 
between the rushing of the train and the haste of the author; 
but to enjoy the older authors, we need the quiet of a winter 
evening — an easy chair before a cheerful fire, and all the 
equanimity of spirits we can command. Then the genial 
good nature, the rich fullness, the persuasive eloquence of 
those old masters will fall upon us like tlie warm, glad sun- 
shine, and afford those hours of calm contemplation in which 
the spirit may expand with generous growth, and gain deep 
and comprehensive views. The pages of friendly old Gold- 
smith come to us like a golden autumn day, wlien every object 
which meets the e^^c bears all the impress of tlie completed 
year, and the beauties of an autumnal forest." 

Another extract, and we will hurry on to later 



84 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



elates and other thinos. Writini^ on " The Prov- 
ince of History," Garfield defined the historian's 
duty : 

"There are two points which the historian should ever 
have before him : 

'"'■First — The valuation of facts to each other and the whole 
body of history ; and, 

'^Second — The tendency of the whole toward some great 
end. 

^ *I» n^ ^ 5fC 5fl *7* -ir 

''For every village, State and nation there is an aggregate of 
native talent which God has given, and by which, together 
with his Providence, he leads that nation on, and thus leads 
the world. In the light of these truths we affirm that no 
man can understand the history of any nation, or of the 
world, who does not recognize in it the power of God, and 
hehold His stately goings forth as He walks among the nations. 
It is His hand that is moving the vast superstructure of human 
history, and, though but one of the windows were unfurnished, 
like that of the Arabian palace, yet all the powers of eartli 
could never complete it without the aid of the Divine Archi- 
tect. 

''To employ another figure — the world's history is a divine 
poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and 
of every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along 
down the centuries, and, though there have been mingled the 
discord of roaring cannon and dying men, yet to the Chris- 
tian, Philosopher and Historian — the humble listener — there 
has been a divine melody running through the song, which 
speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. The record of 
every orphan's sigh, of every widow's prayer, of every noble 
deed, of every honest heart-throb for thfe right, is swelling 
that gentle strain ; and when, at last, the great end is attained 
— when the lost image of God is restored to the human soul ; 
wlien the church anthem can be pealed forth without a dis- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. g ^ 

cordant note, then will angels join in the chorus, and all the 
sons of God again ^ shout for joy.' " 

Young" Garfield's connection with the Oitarteidy 
proved of great benefit to him, as it gave him ex- 
perience and brought him into closer contact v/ith 
the men around him. He first came to know Sam 
Bowles through the Quar^terly, the magazine being 
printed in Bowles' office. Among the constant 
contributors durinof Garfield's connection with it 
as editor, we notice Professor Chadbourne, Horace 
E. Scudder, G. B. Manly, S. G. W. Benjamin, J. 
Gilfillan, W. R. Dimmock, John Savery and W. S. 
B. Plopkins, some of whom survive to-day to a 
more distinguished fame than the pages of the 
College Qtiaiderly, 

His second winter vacation was passed at Pres- 
tenkill, New York, a country neighborhood, about 
six miles from Troy, where one of the Disciple 
preachers from Ohio, named Streeter, was occu- 
pied in preaching. Garfield organized a writing 
school, to keep himself busy, and occasionally 
preached in his friend's church. During a visit to 
Troy he became acquainted w^ith the teachers and 
directors of the public schools of that city, and was 
one day surprised by the offer of a position in 
them, at a salary far beyond his expectations of 
what he could earn on his return to Ohio after his 
graduation. The proposition Vv-as debated gravely. 
If he accepted, he could pay his debts, marry the 
ijirl to whom he was euQ-aofed, and live a life of 



g5 ^'IFJ^- ^^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

comparative comfort In an Eastern city. But he 
could not finish his college course, and he would 
have to sever the ties with friends In Ohio and 
with the struggling- school at Hiram, to which he 
was deeply attached. He settled the question In 
a conversation. Walking on a hill, called Mount 
Olympus, with the gentleman who had made the 
proposition, Garfield said to him: 

'^ You are not Satan, and I am not Jesus, but we are upon 
the mountain, and you have tempted me powerfully. I think 
I must say, get thee behind me. I am poor, and the salary 
would soon pay my debts and place me in a position of inde- 
pendence ; but there are two objections. I could not accom- 
plish my resolution to complete a college course, and should 
be crippled intellectually for life. Then my roots are all 
fixed in Ohio, where people know me and I know them, and 
this transplanting might not succeed as well in the long run 
as to go back home and work for smaller pay." 

Study at Williams was easy for Garfield. He 
had been used to much harder work at Hiram, 
where he had crowded a six years' course into 
three, and tauo-ht at the same time. Now he had 
the stimulus of a laro^e class, an advantage he had 
never enjoyc^d before. His lessons were alwayf^ 
perfectly learned. Professor Chadbourne sa)'s he 
was "the boy who never flunked," and he found a 
o^ood deal of time for courses of readino- that in- 
volved as much brainwork as the collccre text- 
books. He graduated August, 1856, with a class 
honor established by President Hopkins and 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



S7 



highly esteemed in the college — that of Meta- 
physics — reading an essay on "The Seen and the 
Unseen.'* It Is singular how at different times in 
the course of his education he was thought to have 
a special aptitude for some single line of intellec- 
tual work, and how at a later period his talents 
seemed to lay just as strongly In some other line. 
At one time It was mathematics, at another the 
classics, at another rhetoric, and finally he excelled 
in metaphysics. The truth w^as that he had a re- 
markably vigorous and well-rounded brain, capa- 
ble of doing effective w^ork in any direction his 
will might dictate. The class of 1856 contained 
among Its forty-two members a number of men 
who have since won distinction. Three became 
general officers In the volunteer army during the 
rebellion — Garfield, Daviess and Thompson. Two, 
Bolter and Shattuck, were captains, and were 
killed In battle ; Eldridge, who now lives In Chi- 
cago, was a colonel ; so was Ferris Jacobs, of 
Delhi, N. Y. ; Rockwell is a quartermaster In the 
regular army ; Gilfillan Is Treasurer of the United 
States. Hill was Assistant Attorney-General and 
is now a lawyer In Boston. Knox Is a leading 
lawyer In New York. Ncwcombe Is a professor 
in the New York University, of New York. 

Durine his last term at Williams he made his 
first political speech, an address before a meeting 
gathered In one of the class-rooms to support the 
nomination of John C. Fremont. Although he 



33 J- 11'^^ ^i^D PUBLIC CAREER OF 

had passed his majority nearly four years before, 
he had never voted. The old parties did not in- 
terest him ; he believed them both corrupted with 
the sin of slavery ; but when a new party arose to 
combat the designs of the slave power it enlisted 
his earnest sympathies. His mind was free from 
all bias concerning" the parties and statesmen of 
the past, and could equally admire Clay or Jack- 
son, Webster or Benton. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^J^ 



CHAPTER VII. 



A COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 



AMES A. GAREIELD left the venerable dome 
of Williams decorated with her hi^h towers 
and went stralofht back to his Ohio home, to 
take a higher step in his hard won career. He 
entered Hiram College in the fall of 1856 as a 
teacher of ancient lano-uao^es and literature. The 
next year, at the age of twenty-six, he was made 
president of the institution. This office he held 
until he went into the army in 1861. Hoping that 
he might return — unwilling to part even with his 
name — the board kept him nominally at the head 
two years longer. Then he fell out of the cata- 
logue, to re-appear as a trustee and as advisory 
principal and lecturer in 1864 and 1865. Then 
his name finally disappears from the faculty page 
of the cataloeue. His last service as an Instructor 
was an admirable series often lectures on "Social 
Science," given in the spring of 187 1. 

Hiram, when he returned to It, had not much 
Improved since two years before. It was a lone- 
some country village, three miles from a railroad, 
built upon a high hill, overlooking twenty miles of 
cheese-making country to the southward. It con- 
tained fifty or sixty houses clustered around the 



i 



Qo ///^/i A.Vn PUBLIC CAREER OF 

greci"!, Ill tlie centre of which stood the homely 
red-brick collecre structure. Plain livinof and \\\sA\ 
thinking' was the order of things In those days. 
The teachers vvere poor, the pupils were poor, 
and tlie institution was poor, but tliere was a 
great deal of hard, faithful study done, and many 
courageous plans formed. 

The young" president was ambitious for the suc- 
cess of the institution under his charge. There 
probably never was a younger college president, | 
but he carried his new position remarkably well, 
and brought to it energy, vigor and good sense, 
which are the mainsprings of his character. Under 
his supervision, the attendance on the school at 
Hiram soon doubled, and he raised its standard of 
scholarship, strengthened its faculty, and Inspired 
everybody connected with it with something of his 
own zeal and enthusiasm. At that time the lead- 
ing Hiram men w^ere called Philomatheans, from 
the society to which they belonged. Henry James, 
an okl Philom.athean, mentioning recently the 
master-spirits of tliat tinne, thus referred to the 
president : 

''Then began to grow up in me an admiration and love for 
Garfield that has never abated, and the like of which I have 
never known. A bow of recognition, or a single word from 
him, was to me an inspiration." 

The young president taught, lectured and 
preached, and all the time studied as diligently 



I 



I 



i 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



93 



as any acolyte in the temple of knowledge. His 
scholars all regarded him with respect, admi- 
ration and affection. His greatness as a teacher 
and administrator did not lie so much in his tech- 
nical scholarship, his drillmaster teaching, or his 
schoolmaster discipline. His power was in ener- 
gizing young men and women. He stimulated 
thought, aroused courage, stiffened the moral 
fibre, poured in inspiration, widened the field of 
mental vision, and created noble ideal of life and 
character. He was more than a teacher and ad- 
ministrator ; the student found him a helper and 
friend. 

A notable instance of this is on record. The 
present president of Hiram College, Professor B. 
A. Hinsdale, was greatly troubled, during the win- 
ter of 1856-57, in his mind, concerning the ques- 
tions of life. He wrote to Garfield for relief. 
Garfield's reply was as follows : 

''Hiram, January 15th, 1857. 
" My Dear Bro. Burke : — I was made very glad a few days 
since by the receipt of your letter. It was a very acceptable 
New Year's present, and I take great pleasure in responding. 
You have given a vivid picture of a community in which in- 
telligence and morality have been neglected — and I am glad 
you are disseminating the light. Certainly, men must have 
some knowledge in order to do right. God first said, ' Let 
there be light.' Afterward He said, ' It is very good.' I am 
glad to hear of your success in teaching, but I approach with 
much more interest the consideration of the question you 
have proDo^j^d, Brother mine, it is not a question to be dis- 

6 



gA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

cussed in the spirit of debate, bat to be thought over and 
prayed over as a question * out of which are the issues of life.' 
You will agree with me tl^at every one must decide and direct 
Ill's own course in life, and the only service friends can afford 
is to give us the data from which we must draw our own con- 
clusion and decide our course. Allow me, then, to sit beside 
you and look over the field of life and see what are its aspects. 
I am not one of those who advise every one to undertake the 
work of a liberal education ; indeed, I believe that in two- 
thirds of tlie cases, such advice would be unwise. The great 
body of the people will be, and ought to be, intelligent farmers 
and mechanics, and in many respects these pass the most in- 
ilependent and happy lives. But God has endowed some of 
His cliildren with desires and capabilities for a more extended 
fivld of labor and influence, and so every life should be. shaped 
according to 'what the man hath.' Now, in reference to 
yourself. I know you have capabilities for occupying posi- 
tions of high and important trust in the scenes of active life; 
and I am sure you will not call it flattery in me, nor egotism 
in yourself, to say so. Tell me, Burke, do you not feel a 
spirit stirring within you that longs to knoiv, to do and fo dare 
to hold converse with the great world of thought, and hold 
before you some high and noble object to which the vigor of 
your mind and the strength of your arm may be given? Do 
you not have longings like these, which you breathe to no 
one, and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass 
through life unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have 
ihem, and they will forever cling round your heart till you 
obey their mandate. They are the voice of that nature which 
God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you 
and your fellow-men. Now, all this might be true, and yet it 
might be your duty not to follow that course. If your duty 
to your father or your mother demands that you take another, 
I shall rejoice to see you taking that other course. The path 
of duty is where we all ought to walk, be that where it may. 
But I sincerely hope you will not, without an earnest struggle, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



95 



give up a course of liberal study. Suppose you could not be- 
gin your study again till after your majority? It will not be 
too late then, but you will gain in many respects; you will 
have more maturity of mind to appreciate whatever you may 
study. You may say you will be too old to begin the course, 
but how could you spend the earlier days of life? We should 
not measure life by the days and moments that we pass on 
earth. 

" ' The life is measured by the soul's advance ; 

The enlargement of its powers ; tbe expanded field 

Wherein it i»nges, till it burns and glows 

With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' 

'' It need be no discouragement that you are obliged to hew 
your own way, and pay your own charges. You can go to 
school two terms every year, and pay your own way. I know 
this, for I did so, when teachers' wages were much lower than 
they are now. It is a great truth, that ' where there is a will 
there is a way. ' It may be that by and by your father could 
assist you. It may be that even now he could let you com- 
mence on your resources, so that you could begin immedi- 
ately. Of this you know, and I do not. I need not tell you 
how glad I should be to assist you in your work ; but if you 
cannot come to Hiram while I am here, I shall still hope to 
hear that you are determined to go on as soon as the time will 
permit. Will you not write me your thoughts on this whole 
subject, and tell me your prospects? We are having a very 
good time in the school this winter. Give my love to Polden 
and Louise, and believe me always your friend and brother, 

^'J. A. Garfield. 

"P. S. — Miss Booth and Mr. Rhodes send their love to 
you. Henry James was here and made me a good visit a few 
days ago. He is doing well. He and I have talked of going 
to see you this winter. I fear we cannot do it. How far is it 
from here? Burke, was it prophetic that my last word to you 
ended on the oicture of the Capitol of Congress? 

'^J. A. G." 



96 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The slenificance of the last sentence Is seen 

o 

when It Is understood that it was written on a 
sheet of Congress note paper, and the last words 
came across the little picture of the capltol Avhich 
adorns Its upper left-hand corner. 

A pleasant picture of his methods and manners 
is drawn for us from another source — the recol- 
lections of an old pupil, the Rev. J. F. Darsle. 
Me pictures Garfield graphically : 

''I attended school at the Western Reserve Eclectic Insti- 
tute when Garfield was principal, and I recall vividly his 
method of teaching. He took ver)^ kindly to me, and assisted 
me in various ways, because I v/as poor and was janitor of the 
buildings, and swept them out in the morning and built the 
lires — as he had done only six years before, when he was a 
Dupil at the same school. He was full of animal spirits, and 
ne used to run out on the green almost every day and play 
cricket with us. He was a tall, strong man, but dreadfully 
awkward. Every now and then he would get a hit on the 
nose, and lie muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular 
thin'^ He was left-handed, too, and that made him seem all 
t!v2 more clumsier. But he was most powerful and very quick, 
and it was easy for us to understand how it was that he had 
acquired the reputation of whipping all the other mule-drivers 
on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that thorough- 
Lire when he followed its tow-path ten years earlier. 

" No matter hov/ old the pupils were Garfield always called 
us by our first names, and kept himself on the most familiar 
terms with all. He played with us freely, scuffled with us 
sometimes, walked with us in walking to and fro, and we 
treated him out of the class-room just about as we did one 
another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced 
the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, qy 

confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful 
manner. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof 
or approbation, he would generally manage to get one arm 
around him and draw him close up to him. He had a pecu- 
liar w^ay of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to your arm and 
drawing you right up to him. This sympathetic manner has 
helped him to advancement. When I was janitor, he used 
sometimes to stop me and ask my opinion about this and that, 
as if seriously advising with me. I can see now that my 
opinion could not have been of any value, and that he proba- 
bly asked me partly to increase my self-respect, and partly to 
show me that he felt an interest in me. I certainly was his 
friend all the firmer for it. 

*' I remember once asking him what was the best way to 
pursue a certain study, and he said : * Use several text-books. 
Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that 
way you can plow a broader furrow. I always study in that 
way.' He tried hard to teach us to observe carefully and ac- 
curately. He broke out one day in the midst of a lesson witb 
'Henry, how many posts are there under the building down- 
stairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and the question went 
around the class, hardly one getting it right. Then it was; 
' How many boot-scrapers are there at the door ?' ' How 
many windows in the building ?' ' How many trees in the 
field ?' * What were the colors of different rooms, and the 
peculiarities of any familiar objects?' He was the keenest 
observer I ever saw. I think he noticed and numbered every 
button on our coats. 

''Mr. Garfield was very fond of lecturing to the school. 
He spoke two or three times a week, on all manner of topicS; 
generally scientific, though sometimes literary or historical. 
He spoke with great freedom, never writing out what he had 
to say, and I now think that his lectures were a rapid compi- 
lation of his current reading, and that he threw it into this 
form partly for the purpose of impressing it on his own mind. 
His facility o^ speech was learned when he was a pupil the/** 



og LIFE AS'D PUBLIC CAREER OF 

The societies had a rule that every student should take his 
stand on the platform and speak for five minutes, on any topic 
suggested at the moment by the audience. It was a very 
trying ordeal. Garfield broke down badly the two first times 
he tried to speak, but persisted, and was at last, when he went 
to Williams, one of the best of the five-minute speakers. 
When he returned as principal his readiness was striking and 
remarkable." 

As president of an institute, it was natural that 
Garlield should appear on the platform on every 
public occasion. The Church of the Disciples, as 
before stated, like the Society of Friends, is accus- 
tomed to accord large privileges of speaking to 
its laity; and so it came to be expected that Presi- 
dent Garfield should address his pupils on Sun- 
days — briefly even when ministers of the Gospel 
were to preach — more at length when no one 
else was present to conduct the services. The 
remarks of the young president were always 
forcible, generally eloc^uent, and the community 
presently began to regard him as its foremost 
public speaker, to be put forward on every occa- 
sion, to be heard with attention on every subject. 
His pupils also helped to swell Iiis reputation and 
the admiration for his talents. 

• His larire brain was stored with information al- 
ways at his command; he was fluenJ. without being 
verbose ; and he had in an unusual degree the 
happy quality of clearness. This, added to his 
commanding appearance and effective delivery, 
made him sought for on all public occasions. His 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. gg 

s^incerity, his unblemished character, and his elo- 
quence were well known, not only all about the 
reo-Ion where he lived, bu*- throuQ^hout the 
State, and the fact that Mr. Garfield was to 
appear In the pulpit anywhere always drew a 
o-reat crowd. 

He remained, as we have said, at Hiram, undl 
the war called him away, and steadily refused all 
efforts made to induce him to desert the institu- 
tion for whose welfare he had done so much. In 
March, 1861, he was offered the place of vice- 
principal of the Cleveland Institute, at a salary of 
fifteen hundred dollars a year. To the offer he re- 
turned this reply: 

^'I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer, but 
you would not want to employ me for a short time, and I feel 
It my duty to say that some of my friends have got the insane 
notion in their heads that I ought to go to Congress. I know 
I ain't fit for the position, and I have fought against it all I 
could. I know nothing about political wire-pulling, and I have 
told my friends plainly that I would have nothing to do with 
that kind of business, but I am sure that I can be nominated 
and elected without my resorting to any unlawful means, and 
I have lately given authority to allow my name to be used. I 
don't know that anything v/ill come of it 5 if there does not, 
I will gladly accept your offer. 

During his term as president at Hiram, he had 
continued the study of law, begun some time be- 
fore, and he was admitted to the bar of Cuyahoga 
County, in i860. He also paid some attendon to 
Masonry, into which order he was initiated. He 



jQQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER Oir 

has not been, however, a very active member, 
thou oh he has taken a number of decrrees. When 
he was In the army so many of his regiment were 
Masons that they oiganized a lodge, which he 
joined to please them. He Is a charter member 
of Pentalpha Lodge, No. 23, and a member of 
Columbia Chapter, No. i ; Columbia Command- 
ery, No. 2, and Mithras Lodge of Perfecdon, A. 
and A. Rite, all of Washington. 

With this last fiiention, President Garfield drops 
from the record of educational history in this 
country, to take his place in the procession of 
fieures that stand silhouetted ao-ainst our national 
horizon, as men who made and saved our country. 
The mature teacher was transformed Into the 
youthful statesman. But before we turn the page 
to follow him upon the stormy sea of politics, we 
must relate an Incident of his life that has proved 
to have been the happiest red-letter of his ex- 
istence. 

In his earlier days, when a pupil, he met, as re- 
lated, a sweet-faced girl named Lucretia Rudolph. 
She was the daughter of a Maryland farmer, 
Zebulon Rudolph, from the banks of the Shenan- 
doah. The uncle of this man served with dis- 
tinguished bravery in the war of the Revolution, 
and after shcathin^r his sword here, he went to 
France to draw it in the service of the great Na- 
poleon, and he rose to be, so says a cherished 
tradition In the Rudolph family, that brilliant sol- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. jqj 

dier, Michel, Duke of Elchingen, Marshal Ney. 
Zebulon Rudolph's wife was from an old Connec- 
ticut family, and was Arabella Mason, of Hartford, 
Vermont. This was Lucretia Rudolph's parent- 
age. 

When Garfield first met her as a fellow-student 
at Hiram, she was a refined, Intelligent, affection- 
ate o-Irl, who shared his thirst for knowledge and 
his ambition for culture, and had, at the same 
time, the domestic tastes and talents which fitted 
her equally to preside over the home of the 
poor college professor and that of the famous 
statesman. A Hiram poet, celebrating the La- 
dies' Literary Society of the college in verse, so 
suno : 

o 

" Again a Mary ? Nay, Lucre/ia, 

The noble, classic name 

That well befits our fair ladie. 

Our sweet and gentle dame. 

With heart as leal and loving 

As e'er was sung in lays 

Of high-born Roman matron, 

In old, heroic days ; 

Worthy her lord illustrious, whom 

Honor and fame attend; 

Worthy her soldier's name to wear, 

Worthy the civic wreath to share 

That binds her Viking's tawny hair; 

Right proud are we the world should know 

As hers, him we lon<i aijo 

Found truest helper, friend." 

When Garfield went to Williams, Miss Rudolph 
started for Cleveland to teach in the public schools 
and to patiently wait the realization of th^Ir ho[)('K, 



I02 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

which was agreed to be as soon as he shoulcl 
graduate and become estabhshed In hfe. This he 
considered accompHshed when he succeeded to 
the head of the Hiram Institute, and accordingly, 
In 1858, they were married. A neat Httle cottage 
was bought, fronting the college campus, and the 
wedded life begun, poor in worldly goods, but 
wealthy In the affection of brave hearts. The 
match was a love-match and has turned out very 
happily. The general attributes much of his 
success In life to his wise selection. His wife 
has erown with his crrowth, and has been, durlnor 
all his career, the appreciative companion of his 
studies, the loving mother of his children, the 
graceful, hospitable hostess of his friends and 
guests, and the wise and faithful helpmeet in 
the trials, vicissitudes and successes of his busy 
life. 

Both she and the general keep up their classical 
studies yet, and derive great satisfaction from 
doinor so. It is said that, when a Q^Irl at Hiram 
she used to remark that her Latin and her Greek 
would be of no use to her in after life. Two or 
three years ago, having grown a little "rusty" on 
the dead languages, she expressed a wish that she 
had not forgotten her Latin, as she would like to 
take the boys. One day, the general gave her a 
Ca:isar, and told her he would hear her recite a 
page of it that night. She had not looked at the 
great commentaries for years, but when night 



J. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. jq-^ 



o 



came she recited the page very fairly, and from 
that time on, for two years, she took the two older 
boys and carried them through their Latin, and 
the little children have never been to school, but 
have been taught at home by their accomplished 
mother, a wiser, better way. 



104 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BIRTH OF A POLITICAL CAREER. 

P to 1856, General Garfield had taken no 
particular interest in public affairs. He 
had been occupied with other matters. 
But now that his creneral education was finished, 
and he was ready to devote himself to the work of 
the world, his political pulses began to stir. A 
year or two before the Republican party had 
sprung up as an immediate consequent of the 
Kansas-Nebraska leo^-islation. Its ori^-inal mission 
has been thus stated by its present standard- 
bearer : 

'^ Long familiarity with traffic in the bodies and souls of 
men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority of our 
people. The baleful doctrine of State sovereignty had shaken 
and weakened the noblest and most beneficent powers of the 
National Government ; and the grasping power of slavery was 
seizing the virgin territories of the West, and dragging them 
into the den of external bondage. At that crisis the Repub- 
lican party was born. It drew its first inspiration from that 
fire of liberty which God has lighted in every human heart, 
and which all the powers of ignorance and tyranny can 
never wholly extinguish." 

In the campaign of 1857 and 1858, he took the 
stump and became quite well-known as a vigor- 
ous, logical stump orator. And it is extremely 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. jq- 

probable that he, during the excitement of the 
campaign, felt the promptings of a poHtical ambi- 
tion that he did not even acknowledge to himself. 
It was natural then, thinking that a few weeks at 
Columbus would not interfere with his duties at 
Hiram, that he should accept the nomination to 
the Ohio Senate from the counties of Portaee and 
Summit, when it was tendered him in 1859; and 
equally natural that he should be thought of by 
the strong anti-slavery voters of those counties. 
His speeches, during his first campaign, were 
warm, fresh and impassioned, and added not a 
little to his already growing popularity. He was 
elected by a very handsome majority. 

Senator Garfield at once took hiorh rank In the 
Legislature as a man well informed on the sub- 
jects of legislation, and efTectlve and powerful in 
debate. He seemed always prepared to speak ; 
he always spoke fluently and to the point ; and his 
genial, warm-hearted nature served to increase 
the kindness with which both political friends and 
opponents regarded him. Three Western Re- 
serve senators formed the Radical triumvirate in 
that able and patriotic Legislature, which was to 
place Ohio in line for the war. One was a highly- 
rated professor of Oberlin College ; another, a 
lawyer already noted for force and learning, the 
son-in-law of the president of Oberlin ; the third 
was our village carpenter and village teacher from 
Hiram. He was the youngest of the three, but 



1 06 L^^'^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

he speedily became the first. The trials of the 
next six years were to confirm the verdict of the 
little group about the State capital that soon 
placed Garfield before both Cox and Monroe. 
The college professor was abundantly sat sfied 
with the success in life which made him a consul 
at a South American port. The adroit, polished, 
able lawyer became a painstaking general, who, 
perhaps, oftener deserved success than won it, and 
who at last, profiting by the gratitude of the people 
to their soldiers, rose to be Governor of the State, 
but there (for the time, at least), ended. The vil- 
lage carpenter started lower in the race of the 
war, and rose hiorher, became one of the leaders 
in our national councils, and confessedly one of \ 
the ablest among the younger of our statesmen. 
Durinor the session of 1860-61, he was charac- 

o 

teristically active and vigorous in aiding to pre- 
pare the State to stand by the General Govern- 
ment, in opposition to the rising storm of rebellion ; 
a storm that he met bravely, as we shall see later. 
In committee work, we find from his pen an able 
report in favor of a State Geological Surve)-; an- 
other from a select committee in favor of author- 
izing active measures to protect and instruct neg- 
lected, destitute and pauper children. Further, 
the now famous report to punish treason, in which 
he unjed that it was " hi^rh time for Ohio to enact a 
law to meet treachery when it shall take the form 
of an overt act ; to provide that, when her soldiers 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. iq^ 

cro forth to maintain the Union, there shall be no 
treacherous fire in the rear." 

Somethinof about the man as he then was is 
written us by Mr. W. D. Howells, editor of the 
Atlantic Monthly, who was legislative correspon- 
dent and news editor of the OJiio State Jozirnal 
during the years Garfield was in the Ohio Senate : 

''One winter there was an exchange of visits between the 
Tennessee Legislature and ours to promote a sentiment of 
good-feeling. Garfield was prominently in the affair, and ex- 
tremely popular with the Tennesseeans, on account of the 
manly and self-respectful good feeling with which he, a 
Western Reserve anti-slavery man, not then on the common 
ground of their Americanism and devotion to the Union. I 
think he was more acceptable to them than any other Ohioan, 
though there was no question about his political opinions. 
He had then, as now, that simple, affectionate way, which 
charms people. 

'' I knew him, then, for his literary taste, and I particularly 
remember his passion for Tennyson's poetry. I had printed 
my first poems in the Atlantic, and it was, no doubt, his con- 
fidence in my literary sympathy which brought him one morn- 
ing to \\\Q Journal o^Q^, with his Tennyson, to read me some 
passages that had especially moved him in 'The Poet.' The 
rich fullness of his voice, and his fine, self-forgetfulness, as he 
read — impressive enough to a boy of twenty, who had looked 
up to him as a law-giver." 

J This literary reminiscences calls forth another 
! from a correspondent who knew the young sena- 
t tor at the time. Remarking on Garfield's love of 
Pascal, he says : 

" One of the passages from Pascal, which the general is 



108 Z//^^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

most fond of quoting is where that great philosopher said tliat 
the true way to study history is to treat the whole human race 
as one colossal, immortal man, forever living, always learning ; 
who sometimes stumbles and falls, but who in the long run 
always advances in intelligence and civilization. I well re- 
member the general's quoting this. 'Do you know,' he j 
said, 'thdt thought of Pascal's is one of remarkable beauty 
and value? I have often dwelt over it, and carried it 
much further than it is developed by the philosopher. 
The people of a Republic like ours are peculiarly like a j 
single great individual man, full of passions — prejudices 
often — but with a great heart, despising anything like show or 
pretense, and always striving forward in a general right direc- 
tion. The popular verdict, expressed as the voice of this \ 
giant man, is sometimes wrong for the nonce, but in the course 
of time it assumes the right tendency again. This individual 
pays but little attention to infinite things, unless there is 
sometlnng very peculiar about them. He casts his ox-like eye, 
in a sort of slow and easy way, along the horizon, and ascer- 
tains about where a great many men are. If any of these men 
who appear before his general vision make any special effort 
to attract his attention, he probably smiles a sort of contempt- 
ous smile, and passes on. Men often attempt to attract his 
attention — some one way, and others another. If the old fel- | 
low once fastens his eyes on a man or woman from some 
legitimate act or course of action of his or hers, that person 
has that thing happen to him known as fame. If the old fel- 
low's eye is caused to rest on a person from some outlandish 
caper performed on purpose to catch his eye, that man is only 
notorious. The way to make the old giant take special no- 
tice of a man of worth is not to pay much attention to him, 
but keep on one's course, regardless of whatever he sees or 
not. It has been so often illustrated that the men who by 
Liliputian efforts attempt to court the old fellow generally fall 
short of capturing his favor. It is like a woman courting a 
man. There is something in man's nature that makes liim 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, I O9 

revolt against anything of that kind. No woman is so pretty, 
charming and well-dressed that she can safely say to him, 
''Here, marry me ! You love me, and I know it. I am now 
ready for you ; why should we delay?" The man would say, 
'* I was going to ask you to marry m.e, yesterday; but now I 
don't want you at all. You are just a little too willing. I 
think I'd rather not." That is man's nature — he can't help 
but show it ; and that is the nature of the old giant we are 
discussing. He would much rather seek his man when he 
wants to look at one or bestow any special favors.' " 

On the 4th of July, i860, at Ravenna, Mr. Gar- 
field delivered an oration which rings with the 
sterling patriotism of the man and forms a fitting 
prelude to the story of war, to which we must next 
invite the reader's attention. At Ravenna, Gar- 
field said : 

*'We have seen that our Republic differs in its origin from 
all the monarchies of the world. We may also see that it 
differs widely from all other republics of ancient or modern 
times. These all centred round a conquering hero or a pow- 
erful city — ours round a principle. In the brightest days 
of the Grecian Republic, its strength and glory rested 
upon the life and fortunes of Pericles. In the old Dutch 
Republic of Holland and the later establishments of mod- 
ern Germany, freedom was of the city and not of the 
people. The burghers were the only freenieh, and they 
constituted an aristocracy more haughty and imperious 
than the hereditary peers of England. The peasants of the 
rural districts, the toiling thousands, were hardly known to 
the government, except that they bore many of its heavy 
burdens. But here, cities are not tyrannies, and freedom in 
her best estate is found in the green fields of the country, 
among the hardy tillers of the soil. Heroes did not 7nake 
our liberties, the- but reflected and illustrated them. Indi- 

7 



J J Q LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

viduals may wear for a time the glory of our institutions, but 
they carry it not with them to the grave. Like rain-drops 
from heaven, they pass through the circle of the shining bows 
and add to its lustre, but when they have sunk in the earth 
again, the proud arch still spans the sky and shines gloriously 
on. Governments, in general, look upon man only as a 
citizen, a fraction of the state. God looks upon him as an 
individual man, with capacities, duties and a destiny of his 
own ; and just in proportion as a government recognizes the 
individual and shields him in the exercises of his rights, in 
that proportion is it Godlike and glorious. The village 
church and the village school have become our great civil- 
izing and elevating guardians, and we mention with honest 
pride the fact that more than half of all the revenue of our 
State government is annually expended in the education of 
our youth. And yet there arc other States in the Union 
which, in this respect, wear still brighter laurels than Ohio. 
To all these means of culture is added that powerful incen- 
tive to personal ambition which springs from the genius of 
our Government. The pathway to honorable distinction lies 
open to all. No post of honor so high but the poorest boy 
may hope to reach it. 

''It is the pride of every American that many cherished 
names, at whose mention our hearts beat with a quicker bound, 
were worn by the sons of poverty, who conquered obscurity 
and became fixed stars in our firmament. None appreciate 
this more fully than our adopted citizens, who have felt the 
crushing hand of power in other lands. It cannot but destroy 
the high hopes of a noble nature to know that, though the 
blood that visits his heart leaps as free and ruby red as that 
vv-hich courses the veins of king or lord, and though in God's 
sight he is every whit their peer, yet the strong crust of cen- 
turies is above him, the shadow of power gloomily enshrouds 
him, and all the high places of distinction and trust are for- 
ever barred against him. 

"And here we are brought to that question of deepest in- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j j j 

terest to the patriot's heart — -our nation's future. Shall it be 
perpetual ? Shall the expanding circle of its beneficent in- 
fluence extend, widening onward to the farthest shore of time? 
Shall its sun rise higher and yet higher, and shine with ever- 
brightening lustre? Or, has it passed the zenith of its glory, 
and left us to sit in the lengthening shadows of its coming 
night ? Shall power from beyond the sea snatch the proud 
banner from us ? Shall civil dissension or intestine strife rend 
the fair fabric of the Union ? The rulers of the Old World 
have long and impatiently looked to see fulfilled the prophecy 
of its downfall. Such philosophers as Coleridge, Allison and 
Macauley have, severally, set forth the reasons for this 
prophecy — the chief of which is, that the element of sta- 
bility in our Government will sooner or later bring upon it 
certain destruction. This is truly a grave charge. But whether 
instability is an element of destruction or of safety, depends 
wholly upon the sources whence that instability springs. 

''The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as 
the restless sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence 
and safety. Trees may flourish and flowers may bloom upon 
the quiet mountain side, while silently the trickling rain- 
drops are filling the deep cavern behind its rocky barriers, 
which, by and by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild ruin 
its treacherous peace. It is true, that in our land there is no 
such outer quiet, no such deceitful repose. Here society is a 
restless and surging sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of 
the wave, is forever in our ears. Even the angry hoarseness 
of breakers is not unheard. But there is an understratum of 
deep, calm sea, which the breath of the wildest tempest can 
never reach. There is, deep down in the hearts of the Amer- 
ican people, a strong and abiding love of our country and its 
liberty, which no surface-storms of passion can ever shake. 
That kind of instability which arises from a free movement 
and interchange of position among the members of society, 
which brings one drop up to glisten for a time in the crest of 
the highest wave, and then give place to another^ while it 



112 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



goes down to mingle again with the millions below ; such in- 
stability is the surest pledge of permanence. On such insta- 
bility the eternal fixedness of the universe is based. Each 
planet, in its circling orbit, returns to the goal of its depar- 
ture, and on the balance of these wildly-rolling spheres God 
has planted the broad base of His mighty works. So the hope 
of our national perpetuity rests upon that perfect individual 
freedom, which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual 
change. God forbid that the waters of our national life 
should ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It 
would be the stagnation of death — the ocean grave of indi- 
vidual liberty.' 



> » 



■< 



\ 



GARFIELD as a SOLDIER, 



^^ General Garfield proceeded to the Front, ^' 

— General Rosecrans' s official report of the battle of Chicka- 
maw^ga . 



i 



^AMES A. GARFIELD, j j t 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE STORM BURSTS. 



TO write the career of James A. Garfield 
during the trying hours of the RebelHon 
is to write at once a history of intrepid 
bravery, exquisite coolness in danger and sure 
success in action. His career has been rarely 
equaled by any American who entered the war as 
a civilian and laid down his sword with the rank 
of a major-general. His record, while bearing testi- 
mony to the marvelous spirit that always pervades 
a great people in a great crisis, and brings to the 
front a leader for every emergency, is a strangely 
complete illustration of how perfectly a man of 
brains and determination may succeed in some 
difficult walk in life, for which special and particular 
training have been always considered necessary. 

When the South chose to inauQfurate the return 
of the flowers, the budding of the leaves, in 1861, 
by tearing from the old flag some of its sacred 
stars, the country paused a moment, waiting, as it 
were, actors for the tragedy about to begin, leaders 
for the now inevitable armies. The guns that had 
opened upon Sumter on the memorable 12th of 
April, had not merely crumbled the walls of that 
Southern fortress, but they shattered also all hopes 



I I 5 Z/F£ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

of a peaceful solution of the problems then bcfon; 
the country. 

Civil war had become a sad necessity ; a bitter 
fact to write upon the pages of a nation's history 
begun so gloriously in i ']'](y. The President's pro- 
clamation of the 15th called forth the militia for 
/Objects entirely lawful and constitutional, and It 
was responded to with a patriotic fervor which 
melted down all previously existing party lines. 
This " uprising of a great people," as it was well 
termed by a foreign writer, was a kindling and 
noble spectacle. The hearts of a whole land 
throbbed as one. But we cannot now glance back 
upon the brilliant and burning enthusiasm that 
lighted our beloved country like a torch without a 
touch of sadness. For there was commlncrled with 

o 

It so much ignorance, not merely of the magnitude 
of the contest before us, but of the nature of war 
itself. The high-spirited young men who thronged 
to swell the ranks of the volunteer force at the 
call of duty, marched off as gayly as if they were 
participants in a holiday turnout, a party of pic- 
nickers rather than devoted patriots upon a high 
percentage of whom the death seal was already 
set. The Rebellion was to be put down at once, 
and by little more than the mere show of the pre- 
ponderating force of the loyal States ; and the 
task of putting it down was to be attended with 
no more danorer than was sufficient to eive the 
enterprise a due flavor of excitement. War was 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



1^7 



unknown to us except by report ; the men of the 
Revolution were but spectres of a jeweled past; 
the veterans of 1812 were some of them still 
alive, but even they were gray with years and the 
memories of events. 

" All of which they saw, and part of which they were," 

could be but dimly, disjointedly recalled. We 
liad read of battles ; we had seen somethino- 
of the pomp of holiday soldiers ; but of the grim 
realities of war we were absolutely ignorant. In- 
deed, not a few had come to the conclusion that 
war was a relic of barbarism, which civilization had 
so outgrown that modern times had forever dis- 
pensed with the soldier and his sword. 

It need hardly be said that the call to conflict 
found us totally unprepared for the great storm 
about to break. Our regular army was insignifi- 
cant in numbers and scattered over our vast ter- 
ritory or along our Western frontier, so that It 
was impossible to collect any considerable force 
anywhere together. Our militia system had every- 
where fallen Into neglect, allowed to die for want 
of interest, and In some States had almost ceased 
to have any existence whatever. The wits laughed 
at It ; It was a common subject of newspaper criti- 
cism ; It was christened "the cornstalk militia;" 
platform orators declaimed against It Indeed, so 
low had It fallen In public estimation, that It re- 
quired some moral courage to march through the 
streets at the head of a company. 



I I 3 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

The South had been wiser, or at least, more 
provident in this respect. The miHtary spirit had 
never been discouraged there. Many of the poHti- 
cal leaders had long been looking forward to the 
time when the unhappy sectional contests which 
were distracting the country would blaze into a 
civil war, and preparing for it. They watched the 
smouldering fire of discontent, and waited the great 
conflagration of blood. In some of the States 
there had been military academies where a military 
education had been obtained, so that they had a 
greater number of trained officers to put into their 
regiments. This gave them a considerable ad- 
vantage at the start, an advantage more real than 
seeming, and one they were not slow to turn to its 
fullest promise. 

At the North the people paused a moment to 
ask themselves where were they to get the needed 
officers. Graduates of West Point were scattered 
over the country; to them the civil authorities 
turned for assistance. This they rendered freely 
and ably, but it was, of necessity, limited in its 
scope. In most States the militia elected their 
own officers, and there was no other resource than 
to continue the system until time and the fire of 
the enemy's guns should level the abilities of the 
civilians, and bring to the front those who had the 
best tide to be there. This produced a result of 
which we have no reason to be the least ashamed. 
A race of civilian officers, proving their right to 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



I 19 



command by deeds, not diplomas, winning expe- 
rience at the point of the bayonet, and testing 
bravery beneath the bullets of the foe, sprang 
everywhere into sight in the great upholding of 
the Stars and Stripes. To this class, now occupy- 
ing a place in our history, that is to us a crown- 
ing wreath of credit, James A. Garfield belonged, 
and of those who were his comrades few show a 
better, braver record than he. 

When the secession of the Southern States be- 
gun. National considerations were of paramount 
importance in Ohio as elsewhere. Indeed, the 
early signs of the dissolution between the North 
and South had attracted earnest attention and se- 
vere comment in that State. In its Senate and 
House of Representatives many a debate had 
been held, wherein the seeds of secessionists' doc- 
trines had been sought to be planted by men who 
saw amiss. Garfield, as it will be remembered, 
was a member of the Senate, having been elected 
to represent Portage and Summit Counties two 
years before. The spring of 1861 found the Sen- 
ate, of which he was a member, earnestly occupy- 
ing its time with those questions that had so 
much interest within as well as beyond the bor- 
ders of Ohio. Garfield's course on all these ques- 
tions was manly and outspoken. He was fore- 
most in the very small number (only six voting 
with him) who thought the spring of 1861 a bad 
time for adopting the Corwin Constitutional 



J 20 ^^^^ ^^^'^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Amendment, forbidding Congress from ever legis- 
lating on the subject of slavery in the States. He 
was amone the foremost in maintaining the right 
of the National Government to coerce seceded 
States. " Would you give up the forts and other 
government property in those States, or would 
you fight to maintain your right to them?" was 
his adroit way of putting the question to a con- 
servative Republican who deplored his incendiary 

views. 

It was under his leadership, and of his own per- 
sonal initiation, that a bill w^as passed declaring 
any resident of the State, who gave aid and com- 
fort to the enemies of the United States, guilty of 
treason against the State, to be punished by im- 
prisonment in the penitentiary for life. 

Ohio, when the great call came, was as lanpre^ 
pared as were other States. There was a small 
force of militia nominally organized, but the con- 
stitution and laws of the State provided that 
all its officers should be elected by the men, and 
the governor was limited in his selection of officers, 
in case the militia was called out, to the parties 
so chosen. Everywhere, however, there was en- 
thusiasm for the cause and a wild willingness to 
help the government by every possible sacrifice 
that a great people could make. When the 
President's call for seventy-five thousand men was 
announced to the Ohio Senate, Senator Garfield 
was instantly on his feet, and amid the tumultuous 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j 2 I 

rLCclamatlons from the assemblage, moved that 
* twenty thousand troops and three millions of 
money" should be at once voted as Ohio's quota! 
His speech he Immediately illustrated by offering 
his own services in any capacity Governor Denni- 
son might choose. That he should uphold the flag 
was demanded both by patriotism and by the logic 
of the Republican doctrine, that he had so nobly, 
so bravely upheld. It was but the second stage 
of resistance to slavery. While waiting a wdder 
field, he occupied himself with the arming of the 
militia or any measure that had for its object the 
advancement of the plans then in progress. He 
made a hasty journey to Illinois, and procured five 
thousand muskets, which he shipped to Columbus 
to arm some of the first regim^ents that formed 
upon Ohio soil. He then returned to the capital. 
From here he wrote as follows to Mr. Hins- 
dale : 

"Columbus, January 15th, 1861. 
" My heart and thouglits are full almost every moment with the terrible 
reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look upon 
the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible here, that 
the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be any breaking 
up of our institutions, but stern, awful certainty is fastening upon the heart;; 
of men. I do not see any way, outside a miracle of God, which can avoid 
civil war with ail its attendant horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly im- 
possible. Indeed, I cannot say that I would wish it possible. To make 
the concessions demanded by the South would be hypocritical and sinful ; 
they would neither be obeyed nor respected. I am inclined to believe that 
the sin of slaveiy is one of M-hich it may be said that without the shedding of 
blood there is no remission. All that is left us as a State, or say as a com- 
pany of Northern States, is to arm and prepare to defend ourselves and the 
Federal Government. I believe the doom of slavery is drawing near. Let 
war come, and the slaves will get the vague notion that it is waged for them, 
and a magazine will be liglited whose explosion will shake the whole fabric 
of slavery. Even if all this happen, I cannot yet abandon the belief thai 
one government v,-ill rule this continent, and iti people be one people. 



122 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



" Meantime, what will be the influence of the times on individuals ? 
Your question is very interesting and suggestive. The doubt that hangs 
over the whole issue bears touching also. It may be the duty of our young 
men to join the army, or they may be drafted without their own consent. If 
neither of these things happen, there M'ill be a period when old men and 
young will be electrihed by the spirit of the times, and one result will be to 
make every individuality more marked and their opinions more decisive. I 
believe the times will be even more favorable than calm ones for the forma- 
tion of strong and forcible characters. 

"Just at this time (have you observed the fact?) we have no man who 
has power to ride upon the storm and direct it. The hour has come, but 
not the man. The crisis will make many such. But I do not love to spec- 
ulate on so painful a theme. * * * j am chosen to respond to a toast 
on the Union at the State Printers' Festival here next Thursday evening. It 
is a sad and difficult theme at this time." 



"Columbus, February i6th, 1861. 

" Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at 
every point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and 
republican, but very impressive. lie has been raising a respectable pair 
of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no ap- 
pendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am 
greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the 
marks of Western life but there is no touch of affectation in him, and he 
has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, direct and thor- 
oughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style 
of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give me great hopes 
for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's weakness 
and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and vigorous leader. 

'* I have never brought my mind to consent to the dissolution peaceably. 
I know it may be asked, Is it not better to dissolve before war than after? 
But I ask. Is it not better to fight before dissolution than after? If the 
North and South cannot live in the Union without war, how can they live 
and expand as dissevered nations without it? May it not be an economy 
of bloodshed to tell the South that disunion is war, and that the United 
States Government will protect its property and execute its laws at all 
hazards. 

" I confess the _gi"eat weight of the thought in your letter of the Plymouth 
and Jamestown ideas, and their vital and utter antagonism. This conflict 
may yet break the vase by the lustiness of its growth and strength,.but 
the history of other nations gives me hope. Every government has peri- 
ods when its strength and unity are tested. England has passed through 
the Wars of the Roses and the days of Cromwell. A monarchy is more 
easily overthrown than a republic, because its sovereignty is concentrated, 
and a single blow, if it be powerful enough, will crush it. 

" Burke, this is really a great time to live in, if any of us can only catch 
the cue of it. I am glad you write on these subjects, and you must blame 
yourself for having made me inflict on you the longest letter I have writ- 
ten to any one i.i more than a year." 



( 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



^^S 



CHAPTER X. 



AT THE HEAD OF A REGIMENT. 




HEN the time came for appointing 
officers for the troops so hastily got 
together, Garfield displayed," says 
Whitelaw Reld, in his " Ohio in the War," " his 
signal want of tact and skill in advancing his own 
interests. Of the three leading Radical senators, 
Garfield had the most personal popularity. Cox 
was at that time, perhaps, a more compact and 
pointed speaker, he had matured earlier as (to 
change the figure) he was to culminate sooner. 
But he had never aroused the warm regard which 
Garfield's whole-hearted, generous disposition 
always excited, yet Cox had the sagacity to see 
how his interests v/ere to be advanced. He aban- 
doned the Senate-chamber, installed himself as 
assistant In the governor's office, made his skill 
felt in the rush of business, and soon convinced 
the appointing power of his special aptitude for 
military affairs. In natural se^qiience he was pres- 
ently appointed a brigadier-general, while Gar- 
field was sent off on a mission to some western 
States to see about arms for the Ohio volunteers." 
On the 14th of August, 1861, some months after 
the adjournment of the Legislature, Governcir 



, -, . LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

" -4 

Dennlson offered Garfield the lieutenant-colonelcy 
of the Forty-second Ohio, a regiment not yet 
formed, and one which Garfield had been instru- 
mental in bringing into existence witli the active 
aid of Judge Sheldon, of Illinois, Don A. Pardee, 
of Medina, Ralph Plumb, of Oberlin, and other 
patriotic citizens of his district. He did not ac- 
cept the tendered command hasdly, he did not 
grasp the glitter of command with the avidity of 
an aspirant for honors. He went home, opened 
his mother's Bible, and pondered upon the sub- 
ject. He had a wife, a child, and a few thousand 
dollars. If he gave his life to the country, would 
God and the few thousand dollars provide for his 
wife and child ? He consulted the Book about it. 
It seemed to answer in the affirmative, and before 
mornine he wTote to a friend : 

"I regard my life as given to the country. I am 
only anxious to make as much of it as possible 
before the morteasre on It is foreclosed." 

At the same sitting he wrote Governor Denni- 
son his acceptance of the appointment. The regi- 
ment with which he had thus considerately chosen 
to cast his lot was principally recruited from Por- 
teee and Summit Coundes. Most of the officers 
and privates had been students of Hiram College, 
and it was in a certain degree the transfer of that 
Campbellite institution en masse to another field 
where the church militant was to become militant 
\n truth and finally the church triumphant. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^ 2 < 

Five weeks were spent In drilling, and the regi- 
ment was encampedat Camp Chase near Columbus. 
Companies A, B, C and D were miustered into ser- 
vice September 25th, 1861, Company E, October 
30th, Company F, November 12th, and Companies 
G, H, I and K, November 26th, at which time the 
organization was completed. 

Garfield at once set vigorously to work to mas- 
ter the art and mystery of war, and to give his 
men such a degree of discipline as would fit them 
for effective service In the field. Bringing his saw 
and jack-plane again into play, he fashioned com- 
panies, officers and non-commissioned officera 
out of maple blocks, and with these wooden- 
headed troops he thoroughly mastered the infan- 
try tactics In his quarters. Then he organized a 
school for the officers of his regiment, requiring 
thorough recitation In the tactics, and illustrating 
the manoeuvres by the blocks he had prepared for 
his own Instruction. This done, he Instituted regi- 
mental, company, squad, skirmish and bayonet 
drill, and kept his men at these exercises from six 
to eight hours a day, until It was universally 
admitted that no better drilled or disciplined regi- 
ment could be found In Ohio. 

At the time Garfield was appointed lieutenant 
colonel, it was understood that had he cared to 
push the matter he might have been made colo- 
nel, but, with a modesty quite unusual In those 
early days of the war, he preferred to start low 
8 



126 LIFE AND PUBLtf^ CAREJ^R OF 

and rise as he learned. It was but a just tribute, 
therefore, that on the completion of his organiza- 
tion he was, without his own solicitation, promoted 
to the colonelcy. The regiment saw three years 
of service ; the last of the men were mustered out 
December 2d, 1864. 

It was not until the 14th of December that 
orders for the field were received at Camp 
Chase for Colonel Garfield's command. Yet 
to this date no active operations had been at- 
tempted in the great department that lay south of 
the Ohio River. The spell of Bull Run still hung 
over our armies. Save the campaign in Western 
Virginia and the attack by General Grant at Bel- 
mont, not a single engagement had occurred over 
all the region between the Alleghanies and the 
Mississippi. General Buell was preparing to 
advance upon Bowling Green, when he suddenly 
found himself hampered by two co-operating forces 
skillfully planted within striking distance of his 
flank. General Zollikoffer was advancing from 
Cumberland Gap toward Mill Spring; and Hum- 
phrey Marshall, moving down the Sandy Valley 
from Virginia, was threatening to overrun Eastern 
Kentucky. Till these could be driven back, an 
advance upon Bowling Green would be perilous, 
if not actually Impossible. To General George 
H. Thomas, then just raised from his colonelcy of 
regulars to a brigadiership of volunteers, was com- 
mitted the task of repulsing Zollikoffer ; to the un- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 1 2 7 

tried colonel of the raw Forty-second Ohio the 
task of repulsing Humphrey Marshall. And on 
their success the whole army of the Department 
waited. 

Colonel Garfield's orders directed him to move 
his command to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, a town at 
the junction of the Big Sandy and the Ohio, and 
to report immediately, in person, to the Depart- 
ment Head-quarters at Louisville. The regiment 
went by rail to Cincinnati, and thence by boat to 
Catlettsburg, v/here it arrived on the morning of 
December 17th. By sunset of the 19th, Colonel 
Garfield reported to General Buell, at Louisville. 
In his interview with that officer, he was Informed 
that he was to be sent against Humphrey Mar- 
shall, who had In his advance reached as far north 
as Prestonburg, driving the Union forces before 
him. 

Our hero was now face to face with the actuali- 
ties of the conflict, he was to command an expedi- 
tion to which great Importance was attached, and 
on which great results might depend. The prize 
at stake was Kentucky. If the rebel plan was 
successful, Kentucky would probably go out of the 
Union at once; if the Federal operations suc- 
ceeded, secession might be delayed Indefinitely or 
prevented. Marshall was expected by the rebel 
authorities to advance toward Lexington, unite with 
Zollikoffer and establish the authority of the Pro- 
visional Government at the State capital, These 



J 28 Z//:£: AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

hopes were fed by the recollection of his great In- 
tellectual abilities and the soldierly reputation he 
had borne ever since he led the famous charge of 
the Kentucky volunteers at Buena Vista. It was 
also feared that he, with the large army he could 
gather, if unmolested, would hang upon Buell's 
flank, and so prevent his advance into Tennessee; 
or, if he did advance, cut off his communications 
and fallincr on his rear while Beaureo^ard encoun- 
tered him in front, crush him, as it were, between 
the upper and nether millstones. This done, Ken- 
tucky was lost, and that occurring so early in the 
war, the dissolution of the Union might have 
followed. 

To check this dano-erous advance, meet Marshall, 
a thoroughly educated rnilitary man, and the 
uncounted thousands whom his reputation would 
draw about him, Colonel Garfield was asked to 
plan a movement. He had come into the war 
with a life not his own and was now called upon to 
prove his title to the confidence his State had re- 
posed in him. He knew nothing of war beyond 
its fundamental principles ; which are, as stated by 
some writer, that "a big boy can whip a little boy, 
and that the big boy can whip two little boys, if he 
take them singly one after another." He knew 
no more about it when General Buell, one of the 
most scientific military men of his time, selected 
him to solve a problem which has puzzled the 
heads of the ablest generals ; namely, how two 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. I 2<s 

small bodies of men stationed widely apart can 
unite In the face of an enemy and beat him, when 
he Is twice the united strength, and strongly post- 
ed behind Intrenchments. 

To do this Garfield was given, what? Twenty- 
five hundred men, eleven hundred of whom under 
Colonel Cramer were at Paris, Ky., the remainder, 
his own reoflment and the half-formed Fourteenth 
Kentucky, under Colonel Moore, at Catlettsburg; 
a hundred miles of mountain country, overrun 
with rebels being between them. This was the 
problem of the big boy of uncertain size, but 
known to be skilled in war, and the two little boys 
who were to v/hlp him when only by a miracle 
could they act together, and when they knew no 
more of war than can be learned from the postur- 
ing of wooden blocks and the crack perhaps of 
squirrel rifles. 

"That Is what you have to do. Colonel Can 
field — drive Marshall from Kentucky," said Buell, 
when he had finished his view of the situation, 
"and you see how much depends on your action. 
Now, go to your quarters, think of It over night 
and come here in the morninof and tell me how 
you will do It." 

On his way to his hotel, the young colonel 
bought a rude map of Kentucky, and then shut- 
ting himself In his room, spent the night In study- 
ing the geography of the country In which he was 
to operate, and in making notes of the plan which, 



^ ^Q LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

In the still, small hours, came to him as the only 
one feasible and likely to secure the objects 
of the campaign. 

His interview with the commanding general on 
the following morning was, as may be imagined, 
one of peculiar interest. Few army officers pos- 
sessed more reticence, terse logic and severe 
military habits, than General Buell, and as the 
young man laid his rude map and roughly-outlined 
plan on his table, and with a curious and anxious 
face watched his features to detect some indication 
of his thought, the scene was one for a painter. 
But no word or look Indicated the commander's 
opinion of the feasibility of the plan, or the good 
sense of the suggestions. He spoke noAV and 
then in a quiet, sententious manner, but said noth- 
ing of approval or disapproval ; only, at the close 
of the conference, he made a sinofle remark : 

"Your orders will be sent to you at six o'clock, 
this evening." 

Promptly at that hour the order came, organiz- 
ing the Eighteenth Brigade of the Army of the 
Ohio, Colonel Garfield commanding, and with the 
order came a letter of Instructions for the cam- 
paign, recapitulating, Avith very slight modifica- 
tions, the plans submitted by Garfield that same 
morninc:. On the followlnsf mornlnor he took his 
leave of his general. The latter said to him at 
parting: 

" Colonel, you will be at so great a distance from 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, j ^ j 

me, and communications will be so slow and diffi- 
cult, that I must commit all matters of detail, and 
much of the fate of the campaign to your discre- 
tion. I shall hope to hear a good account ol 
you," 

Garfield at once set out for Catlettsburo-, and, 
arriving there on the 2 2d of December, found his 
regiment had already proceeded to Louisa, twenty- 
eight miles up the Big Sandy. 

A state of general alarm existed throughout 
the district. The Fourteenth Kentucky — the only 
force of Union troops left in the Big Sandv 
region — had been stationed at Louisa, but had 
hastily retreated to the mouth of the river dur- 
ing the night of the 19th, under the impression 
that Marshall, with his whole force, v/as follow- 
ing to drive them into the Ohio. Union citizens 
and their families were preparing to cross the 
river for safety, but with the appearance of 
General Garfield's regiment a feeling of secu- 
rity returned, and this was increased when it 
was seen that the Union troops boldly pushed 
on to Louisa without even waitino- for their 

o 

colonel. This, however, was only In pursu- 
ance of orders he had telegraphed on the morn- 
ing after he had formed the plan of the cam- 
paign by midnight, in his dingy q«uarters of his 
Louisville hotel. 

Waiting at Catlettsburg only long enough to 
forward supplies to his forces, Garfield appeared 



J ^2 ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

at Louisa on the morning of December 24th, and 
thence forward he became an actor in, all its cir- 
cumstances considered, one of the most wonder- 
ful dramas to be read of in history. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j ^ ^ 




CHAPTER XI. 

OPENING THE BIG SANDY CAMPAIGN. 

ARFIELD had two very difficult things to 
accomplish. He had to open communica- 
tions with Colonel Cranor, while the In- 
tervening country, as has been said, was infested 
with roving bands of rebels and populated by 
disloyal people. He had also to form a junction 
with the force under that officer in the face of a 
superior enemy who would doubtless be apprised 
of his every movement and be likely to fall upon 
his separate columns the moment either was set 
In motion, in the hope of crushing them in detail. 
Either operation was hazardous if not well-nigh 
impossible. 

Evidently the first thing to be done was to find 
a trustworthy messenger to convey dispatches 
between the two halves of his army. To this end 
Garfield applied to Colonel Moore of the Fouk*- 
teenth Kentucky. 

" Have you a man" he asked, "who will die rathr r 
than fall and betray us?" 

The Kentucklan reflected a moment, then 
answered : 

*T think I have, John Jordan from the head of 
the Blaine." 






1^4 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Jordan was sent for and soon entered the tent 
of the Union commander. He was somewhat of 
a noted character in that region, a descendant of 
a Scotchman belonging to a family of men who 
ever died in the defense of some honor or trust. 
Jordan was also a born actor, a man of unflinching 
courage, of great expedients and devoted to the 
true principles that bind this land in the solidity of 
a great union. 

On his appearance, Garfield was at once Im- 
pressed in his favor. He remembers him to-day 
as a tall, gaunt, sallow man, of about thirty years, 
with gray eyes, a fine falsetto voice, pitched In the 
minor key, and a face that had as many expres- 
sions as could be found In a reofiment. To the 
young colonel he seemed a strange combination 
of cunning, simplicity, undaunted courage and un- 
doubting faith, but possessed of a quaint sort of 
wisdom, which ought to have given him to hlstor}^ 
He sounded him thoroughly, for the fate of the 
campaign might depend upon his fidelity; but 
Jordan's soul was as clear as crystal, and In ten 
minutes Garfield had read It as if It had been an 
open volume. 

"Why did you come Into this war?" at last 
asked the commander. 

"To do my part for the country, colonel," an- 
swered Jordan, "and I made no terms with the 
Lord. I gave Him my life without conditions, and 
If He sees fit to take It in this tramp, why, It Is 
His. I have nothing to say against it." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



135 



*'You mean you have come into the war not 
expecting to get out of it?" 

"I do, colonel." 

"Will you die rather than let this dispatch be 
taken?" 

"I will." 

The colonel recalled what had passed in his own 
mind, when poring over his mother's Bible that 
night at his home in Ohio, and it decided him. 

"Very well," he said; "I will trust you." 

The dispatch was written on tissue paper, rolled 
Into the form of a bullet, coated with warm lead, 
and put Into the hand of Jordan. He was given 
a carbine and a brace of revolvers, and mounting 
his horse when the moon was down, he started on 
his perilous journey, where. In spite of Its most ro- 
mantic interest, we cannot follow him. 

By midnight of the second day Jordan reached 
Colonel Cranor's quarters, at McCormick's Gap, 
and delivered his precious billet. The colonel 
opened the dispatch. It was dated Louisa, De- 
cember 24th, midnight, and directed him to move 
his reeiment at once to Prestonburof. He would 
encumber the men with as few rations as possible 
and as little baggage, bearing In mind that the 
safety of his command would depend on his expe- 
dition. He would also cause the dispatch to be 
conveyed to Lieutenant-Colonel Woolford, at 
Stamford, and direct him to join the march with 
his three hundred cavalry. Hours were now worth 



I 



T26 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

months of common time, and on the following? 
morning Cranor's cohimn was set in motion. 

The dispatch fully revealed to Cranor Garfield's 
intention to move at once upon the enemy. Of 
Marshall's real strength he is ignorant, but his 
scouts and the country people report that the 
rebel's main body — which is intrenched in an al- 
most impregnable position near Palntvllle — Is from 
four to seven thousand, and that an outlying force 
of eight hundred occupies West Liberty, a town 
directly on the route by which Colonel Cranor is 
to march to effect a junction with Garfield's men. 
Cranor's column Is one thousand one hundred 
strong, and the main body, under Garfield, num- 
bers about seventeen hundred, consisting of the 
Forty-second Ohio Infantry, one thousand and 
thirteen strong, and the Fourteenth Kentucky In- 
fantry, numbering five hundred, rank and file, but 
imperfectly armed and equipped. All told, Gar- 
field's force, therefore, counted two thousand eight 
hundred, in a strange district, cut off from rein- 
forcements, with which to meet and crush an army 
of at least five thousand, familiar with the country 
and dally receiving recruits from the disaffected 
southern counties. Evidently a forward movement 
is attended with great hazard, but the Union com- 
mander does not waste time in considering the 
obstacles and dangers of the expedition. On 
the morning following the scout's departure for 
Cranor's camp, Garfield sets out with such of his 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, j ^ ^ 

command as are in readiness, and haldno- at 
George's Creek, only twenty miles from Mar- 
shall's Intrenched position, prepares to move at 
once upon the enemy. 

The roads along the Big Sandy are Impassable 
for trains, and the close proximity of the enemy 
renders It unsafe to make so wide a detour from 
the river as would be required to send supplies 
by the table-lands to the westward. Under these 
circumstances Garfield decides to depend mainly 
upon water navigation to transport his supplies, 
and to use the army-train only when his troops 
are obliged, by absolutely Impassable roads, to 
move away from the river. 

The Big Sandy Is a narrow, fickle stream, that 
finds its way to the Ohio through the roughest and 
wildest spurs of the Cumberland Mountains. At 
!ow water it Is not navigable above Louisa, except 
for small flat-boats pushed by hand, but these as- 
cend as high as PIketon, one hundred and twenty 
miles from the mouth of the river. In time of 
high water small steamers can reach PIketon ; but 
heavy freshets render navigation impracticable, 
owing to the swift current filled with floating tim- 
ber, and to the overhanging trees, which almost 
touch one another from the opposite banks. At 
this time the river w^as only of moderate height, 
but, as will be readily seen, the supply of a bri- 
gade at mid-winter by such an uncertain stream, 
and in the presence of a powerful enemy, was a 
thing oi great difficulty. 



J -,3 LTFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



O 



However the obstacles did not Intimidate Gar- 
field. Gathering ten day^' rations, he charters 
two small steamers and impresses all the flat-boats 
he can lay hand on, and then taking his army 
wagons apart, he loads them with his forage and 
provisions upon the flat-boats. This is on New 
Year's Day, 1862. Next morning Captain Bent, 
of the Fourteenth Kentucky, entering Garfield's 
tent, says to him: 

"Colonel, there's a man outside who says he 
knows you, Bradley Brown, a rebel thief and 
scoundrel." 

"Brown," says Garfield, raising half-dressed 
from his blanket' "Bradley Brown! I don't know 
any one of that name." 

"He has lived near the head of the Blaine, been 
a boatman on the river, says he knew you on the 
canal in Ohio." 

"Oh, yes," answered Garfield, "bring him m, 
now I remember him." 

In a moment Brown is ushered Into the col- 
onel's quarters. He is clad In country homespun, 
and spattered from head to foot with the mud of 
a long journey, but, without any regard for the 
sanctity of rank, he advances at once upon the 
Union commander, and grasping him warmly by 
the hand, exclaims, "Jim, ole feller, how ar' ye!" 
The colonel received him cordially, but noticing 
his ruddy face, says : 

"Fifteen years haven't changed you. Brown; 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^^ 

you will. take a glass of whisky? But what's this 
I hear? Are you a rebel?" 

" Yes," answers Brown, " I belong to Marshall's 
force, and" — this he prefaces with a burst of 
laughter, " I've come stret from his camp to spy 
out yer army." 

The colonel looks surprised, but says, coolly : 

" Well, you go about it queerly." 

" Yes, quar, but honest, Jim — when yer alone, 
I'll tell yer about It." 

As Bent was leaving the tent he said to his 
commander, in an undertone : 

" Don't trust him, colonel ; I know him, he's a 
thief and a rebel." 

Brown's disclosures, in a few words, are* these: 

Hearing, a short time before, at the rebel camp, 
that James A. Garfield, of Ohio, had taken com- 
mand of the Union forces, it at once occurred to 
him that it was his old canal companion, for whom, 
as a boy, he had felt a strong affection. This sup- 
position was confirmed a few days later by his 
hearing from a renegade Northern man something 
of the antecedents of the colonel. Remembering 
their former friendship, and being indifferent as to 
which side was successful in the campaign, he at 
once determined to do an important service to the 
Union commander. 

With this object he sought an Interview with 
Humphrey Marshall, stated to him his former ac- 
quaintance with Garfield, and proposed that he 



J AQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

should take advantage of It to enter the Union 
camp, and learn for the rebel general all about his 
enemy's strength and intended movements. Mar- 
shall at once fell into the trap, and the same night 
Brown set out for the Union camp, ostensibly to 
spy for the rebels, but really to tell the Union 
commander all that he knew of the rebel strength 
and position. He did not know Marshall's exact 
force, but he gave Garfield such facts as enabled 
hirtl to make, within half an hour, a tolerably accu- 
rate map of the rebel position. 

When this was done, the Union colonel said to 
him : 

" Did Bent blindfold you when he brought you 
into camp ?" 

" Yes, colonel, I couldn't see my hand afore me." 

" Well, then, you had better go back directly to 
Marshall." 

" Go back to him ! Why, colonel, he'll hang me 
to the first tree !" 

" No he won't — not if yoti tell him all about my 
strenorth and intended movements." 

" But how kin I ? I don't know a thinof. I tell 
ye I was blindfolded." 

" Yes, but that don't prevent your guessing at 
our numbers, and about our movements. You 
may say that I shall march to-morrow straight for 
his camp and in ten days be upon him." 

Brown sat for a moment musing, then he said : 

"Wall, Colon! ye'd be a durned fool, and if ye's 



JAMES A. CAKFIELD 

•^ 141 

thet ye must hev growed to it since we were on 
ther canal — ef ye went upon Marshall, trenched as 
he is, with a man short on twenty thousand. I kin 
*guess ' ye's that many.' 

" Guess again. I haven't that number." 

"Then, ten thousand." 

" Well, that will do for a Kentuckian. Now, to- 
day, I will keep you under lock and key, and to- 
night you can go back to Marshall." 

At nightfall, Brown set out for the rebel camp, 
and, on the following day, Garfield put his little 
army, reduced now by sickness and garrison-duty, 
to fourteen hundred, in motion. 

It was a toilsome march. The roads were knee- 
deep in mire, and encumbered as it was with only 
a light train, the army miade very slow progress. 
Some days it marched five or six miles, and some 
considerably less, but on January 6th, it arrived 
within seven miles of Paintville. Here the men 
threw themselves upon the wet ground, and Gar- 
field laid down in his boots, in a wretched log hut 
to catch a few hours of slumber. 

About midnight, he was roused from his sleep 
by a man who said his business was urgent. The 
colonel rubbed his eyes, and raised himself on 
his elbow. 

"Back safe?" he asked. "Have you seen 
Cranor ?" 

" Yes, colonel ; he can't be any more than two 
days behind me." 
9 



1^2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

" God bless you, Jordan ! You have done us a 
great service," said Garfield, warmly. 

" I thank you, colonel," answered Jordan, his face 
trembling, "that is more pay than I expected." 

He had returned safely, but the Providence 
which so wonderfully guarded his way out, seemed 
to leave him to find his way back, for, as he ex- 
pressed it, " The Lord cared more for the dispatch 
than He cared for me, and it was natural He 
should, because my life counts only one, but the 
dispatch, it stood for the whole of Kentucky." 

Next morninor, another horseman rode up to the 
Union head-quarters. He was a messenger direct 
from General Buell, who had followed Garfield up 
the Big Sandy with dispatches. They contained 
only a few hurried sentences, from a man to a 
woman, but their value was not to be estimated in 
money. It was a letter from Humphrey Marshall to 
his wife, which Buell had intercepted, and it revealed 
the important fact that the rebel general had five 
thousand men — four thousand four hundred in- 
fantry and six hundred cavalry — with twelve pieces 
of artillepy^ and was daily expecdng an attack from 
a Union force of ten thousand ! 

Garfield put the letter In his pocket and then 
jcalled a council of his officers. They assembled 
in the rude log shanty, and the quesdon was put 
to them : 

" Shall we march at once, or wait the coming of 
Cranor ?"~ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, j^^ 

All but one said " Wait !" He said, '' Move at 
once, our fourteen hundred can whip ten thou- 
sand rebels." 

Garfield reflected awhile, then closed the coun- 
cil with the laconic remark : " Well, forward it is. 
Give the order." 

Three roads led to the rebel position — one at 
the east, bearing- down to the river and along its 
western bank; another, a circuitous one, to tlie 
west, coming in on Paint Creek at the mouth of 
Jenny's Creek, on the right of the village; and a 
third between the two others, a more direct route 
but climbing a succession of almost impassible 
ridges. These three roads were held by strong 
rebel pickets, and a regiment was outlying at the 
villacre of Paintville. 

The diagram opposite will show the situation. 

To deceive Marshall as to his real strenrth and 
designs, Garheld orders a small force of infantry 
and cavalry to advance along the river road, drive 
in the rebel pickets, and move rapidly after them 
as if to attack Paintville. Two hours after this 
small force goes off, a similar one, with the same 
orders sets off on the road to the westward, and 
two hours later still another small party takes the 
middle road. The effect is that the pickets on the 
first route being vigorously attacked and driven, 
retired in confusion to Paintville, and dispatched 
word to Marshall that the Union armv is advanc- 
ing alonor the river. He hurries off a thousand 



14^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



mfantry and a battery to resist the advance oi 
this imaginary column. 

When this detachment had been gone an 
hour and a half, Marshall hears from the routet,; 
pickets on his left that the Union forces are ad- 
vancing along the western road. Countermand- 
Ino- his first order, he now directs the thousand 
men and the battery to check the new danger, and 
hurries off the troops at Paintville to the mouth of 
Jenny's Creek, to make a stand at that point. Two 
hours later the pickets on the central route are 
driven in, and finding Paintville abandoned, they 
flee precipitately to the fortified camp with the 
story that the whole Union army is close at their 
heels, and already occupying the town. Conceiving 
that he has thus lost Paintville, Marshall hastily 
withdraws the detachment of a thousand to his 
camp, and then, Garfield moving rapidly over the 
ridges of the central route, occupies the abandoned 
position. 

So affairs stand on the evening of the 8th of 
January, when a rebel spy enters the camp of 
Marshall with tidings that Cranor, with three thou- 
sand three hundred men, is within twelve hours* 
march at the westward. 

On receipt of these tidings, the rebel general 
conceiving himself vastly outnumbered, breaks up 
his camp — which he might have held for a twelve- 
month — and retreats precipitately, abandoning or 
burning a large portion of his supplies. Seeing ; 



^AMES A. GARFIELD. 



H7 



the fires, Garfield mounts his horse, and with a 
thousand men enters the deserted camp at nine in 
the evening, .while the blazing stores are yet un- 
consumed. He sends off a detachment to harass 
the rebel retreat, and waits the arrival of Cranor, 
with whom he means to follow and bring Marshall 
to battle in the morning. 

In the morning Cranor comes, but his men are 
footsore, without rations and completely ex- 
hausted. The most of these cannot move one 
leg after the other. But the Union commander is 
determined on a battle, so every man who has 
strength to march is ordered to come forward. 
Eleven hundred, and among them four hundred of 
Cranor's tired heroes, step from the ranks, and 
with them, at noon on the 9th, Garfield sets out 
for Prestonburg, sending all his available cavalry 
to follow the line of the enemy's retreat, and har- 
ass and destroy him. 

Marchine eiehteen miles he reaches, at nine 
o'clock that night, the mouth of Abbott's Creek, 
three miles belowPrestonburg — he and the eleven 
hundred. There he learns that Marshall Is en- 
camped on the same stream, three miles higher 
up; and, throwing his men into bivouac In the 
midst of a sleety rain, he sends back an order to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who had been left In 
command at Paintville, to bring up every available 
man with all possible dispatch, for he shall force 
the enemy to batde in the morning. He spends 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the nlMit in learnlnof the character of the sur- 
rounding country, and the disposition of Mar- 
shall's forces, and makes a hasty dinner off o{ 
stewed rabbit eaten out of a tin-cup — he sharing 
the single spoon and the stew with one of his 
officers. 

Jordan, the scout, now comes into play once 
more. A dozen rebels are grinding at a mill, and a 
dozen honest men come upon them, steal their corn 
and take them prisoners. The miller is a tall, 
gaunt man, and his "butternuts" fit Jordan as if | 
they were made for him. He is a rebel too, and 
his very raiment should bear witness against this 
feeding of his enemies. It does. It goes back to 
the rebel camp, and Jordan goes in it. That 
chameleon face of his is smeared with meal, and 
looks the miller so well that the miller's own wife 
mio-ht not detect the difference. The nicrht is 



pitch dark and rainy, and that lessens the danger; 1 
but still Jordan is picking his teeth in the very 
jaws of the lion. 

Jordan's midnight ramble in the rebel ranks 
gave Garfield the exact position of the enemy. 
They had made a stand, and laid an ambuscade for 
him. Strongly posted, on a semi-circular hill at 
the forks of Middle Creek, on both sides of the 
road, with cannon commandinp- its whole lenq^th, 
and hidden by the trees and underbrush, they 
awaited his comin or. ■! 

Deeming it unsafe to proceed furthei in the 



1 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j 4 g 

darkness, Garfield, as has been said, ordered his 
army into bivouac, at nine o'clock in the evening, 
and climbed the steep ridge called Abbott's Hill. 
His tired men threvv' themselves upon the wet 
o-round to wait till mornins^. It was a terrible 
night, fit prelude to the terrible day that followed. 
A dense foo; shut out the moon and stars, and 
shrouded the lonelv mountain in almost Cimmerian 
darkness. A cold wind swept from the north, 
drivinor the rain in blindinfr mists into the faces of 
the shivering men, and stirring the dark fires into 
the cadences of a mournful music. But the slow 
and cheerless night at last wore away, and at four 
in the morning the tired and hungr)^ men, their 
icy clothing clinging to their half- frozen limbs, 
were roused from their cold beds and ordered 
to move forward. Slowly and cautiously they 
descended into the valley, that to so many of 
them seemed the Valley of the Shadow of Death. 
The enemy was waiting them, they were wait- 
ine him. The last bivouac had been held, and 

o 

there was nothlnor left but to advance and meas- 
ure their lives ao^ainst the foe. 



J -Q LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 



CHAPTER XII. 

HAIL COLUMBIA'S SOLDIER AT THE BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK. 



A 



S the day breaks in the east, and the gray 
mists that have been the blankets for 
Garfield's lltde force slowly draw up from 
the inhospitable ground, the advance guard, round- 
ing a hill that juts out into the valley, is charged 
upon by a body of rebel horsemen. Forming his 
men in a hollow square, Garfield gives the rebels 
a volley that sends them reeling up the valley, all 
but one, and he with his horse plunges into the 
stream, and is captured. 

The main body of the enemy, it is now evident, 
is not far distant, but whether he has changed his 
position since the visit of the scout Jordan is yet 
uncertain. To determine this, Garfield sends for- 
ward a strong corps of skirmishers, who sweep the 
cavalry from a ridge they have occupied, and 
moving forward, soon draw the fire of the hidden 
rebels. Suddenly a puff of smoke rises from be- 
yond the hill, and a twelve-pound shell whistles 
above the trees, then, plowing up the hill, buries 
itself in the ground at the feet of the adventurous 
little band of skirmishers. 

It is now twelve o'clock, and throwing his whole 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, j :- j 

force upon the ridge whence the rebel cavalry 
have been driven, Garfield prepares for the im- 
pending battle. It is a trying and perilous mo- 
ment. He is in the presence of a greatly superior 
enemy, and how to dispose his little force, and 
where first to attack, are things not easy to deter- 
mine. But he loses no time in idle indecision. 
Looking in the faces of his eleven hundred men, 

o 

he goes at once into the terrible struggle. His 
mounted escort of twelve soldiers he sends for- 
ward to make a charge, and, if possible, to draw 
the fire of the enemy. The ruse succeeds admir- 
ably. As the little squad sweeps round a curve in 
the road, another shell whistles through the valley, 
and the long roll of nearly five thousand muskets 
chimes in with a fierce salutation. The battle has 
begun in earnest. 

A o-lance at the eround will best show the real 
nature of the conflict. It was on the margin of 
Middle Creek, a narrow and rapid stream, and 
three miles from where it finds its way into the 
Big Sandy, through the sharp spurs of the Cumber- 
land Mountains. A rocky road, not ten feet in 
width, winds along this stream, and on its two 
banks abrupt ridges, with steep and rocky sides, 
overgrown with trees and underbrush, shut closely 
down upon the narrow road and little streamlet. 
At twelve o'clock Garfield has gained the crest of 
the rido-e at the rio-ht of the road, and the charge 
of his handful of horsemen has drawn Marshall's 



J r 2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

fire and disclosed his actual position. It will be 
clearly seen from the subjoined diagram. 

The main force of the rebels occupied the crests 
of the two ridges at the left of the stream, but a 
strong detachment was posted on the right, and a 
battery of twelve pieces held the forks of the 
creek and commanded the approach of the Union 
army. It was Marshall's plan to lure Garfield 
alonof the road, and then takinof him between two 
enfilading fires, surround and utterly destroy him. 
But his hasty fire betrayed his design and un- 
masked his position. 

Garfield acts with promptness and decision. A 
hundred undergraduates, recruited from his own 
college, are ordered to cross the stream, climb the 
ridge whence the fire had been hottest, and bring 
on the battle. Boldly the little bat)d plunges into 
the creek, the Icy w^ater up to their waists, and 
clinp^inof to the trees and underbrush, climb the 
rocky ascent. Half way up the ridge the fire of 
at least two thousand rifles open upon them, but 
springing from tree to tree, they press on, and at 
last reach the summit. Then suddenly the hill Is 
gray with rebels, who, rising from ambush, pour 
their deadly volleys into the little band of only r 
hundred. For a moment there are signs of wa\ 
ering, then their leader calls out : '' Every man to 
a tree ! Give them as good as they send, m) 
brave Bereans !" 

The rebels, behind rocks and rude Intrench- 



JAMES A. GARJ XELD. 



155 



ments, are obliged to expose their Pxeads to take 
aim at the advancing column, but the Union troops, 
posted behind the huge oaks and maples, can stand 
erect and load and fire fully protected. Though 
they are outnumbered ten to one, the contest is 
dierefore for a time not so very unequal. But soon 
rhe rebels, exasperated with the obstinate resist- 
ance, rush from cover and charge upon the little 
handful with the bayonet. Slowly they are driven 
down the hill, and two of them fall to the ground 
wounded. One never rises, the other, a lad of 
only eighteen, is shot through the thigh, and one 
of his comrades Uurns back to bear him to a place 
of safety. The advancing rebels are within thirty 
feet, when one oi them fires, and his bullet strikes 
a tree directly above the head of the Union sol- 
dier. He turns, levels his musket, and the rebel 
is in eternity. Then the rest are upon him ; but, 
ziofzagforingf from tree to tree, he is soon with his 
driven column. But not far are the brave boys 
driven. A few rods lower down they hear the voice 
of their leader. 

" To the trees again, my boys," he cries. " We 
may as well die here as in Ohio !" 

To the trees they go, and in a moment the ad- 
vancing horde is checked, and then rolled back- 
ward. Up the hill they turn, firing as they go, and 
the little band follows. Soon the rebels reach the 
spot where the Berean boy lies wounded, and one 
of them says to him : 



i5<5 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



** Boy, guv me yer musket." 

" Not the gun but Its contents," returns the lad, 
and the rebel falls, mortally wounded. Another 
raises his weapon to brain the prostrate lad, but 
he too falls, killed with his comrade's own rifle. 
And all this is done while the hero-lad is on the 
ground bleeding. An hour afterward, his com- 
rades bear him to a sheltered spot on the other 
side of the streamlet, and then the first word of com- 
plaint escapes him. As they are taking off his leg, 
he says, in his agony : " Oh, what will mother do ?" 

A fortnight later, the words of this patient, patri- 
otic lad — Charles Carlton, of Franklin, Ohio — re- 
peated in the Senate of Ohio, aroused the State to 
at once make provision for the widows and mothers 
of its soldiers. 

As the college boys retreat, the quick eye of 
the Union commander, standing upon a rocky 
height oa the other side of the narrow valley, dis- 
cerns, throuorh the denselv-curlinor smoke, the real 
State of the unequal contest. "They are being 
driven," he says; " they will lose the hill unless 
supported." 

Immediately, five hundred of the Ohio Fortieth 
and Forty-second, under Major Pardee and Colo- 
nel Cranor, are ordered to the rescue. Holding 
their cartridge-boxes above their heads, they dash 
Into the stream, up the hill and into the fight 
shouting: 

" Hurra for Williams and die brave Bereans !" 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ' j -- 

But shot, and shell, and canister, and the fire of 
four thousand muskets, are now concentrated 
upon the few hundred heroes. 

'' This will never do," cries Garfield. " Who 
will volunteer to carry the crest of the moun- 
tain?" 

"We will!" shouts Colonel Munroe, of the 
Twenty-second Kentucky. " We know every Inch 
of the o-round." 

" Go in, then," cries Garfield, " and give them 
Hail Columbia!" 

Fording the stream lower down, they climbed 
the ridge to the left, and in ten minutes are upon 
the enemy. Like the others, these rebels are 
posted behind rocks, and, when uncovered, heads 
soon become ghastly targets for the sure Ken- 
tucky rifles. 

"Take good aim, and don't shoot till you see 
the eyes of your enemy," shouts the brave col- 
onel. 

The men have never been under fire, but In a 
few moments are as cool as If at one of the tradi- 
tional Kentucky turkey matches. 

"Do you see that reb," says one to a comrade, 
as a head appears above the rock. "Hit him while 
I'm loading." 

Another Is brinorine his cartrldore to his mouth 
when a bullet cuts away the powder and leaves 
the lead In his fingers. Shielding his arm with his 
body, he says, as he turns from the foe and rams 



158 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



home another cartridge: "There, see if you can 
hit that ?" 

Another takes out a piece of hard-tack and a 
ball shivers it in his hand. He swallows the rem- 
naf[t, and then coolly hres away again. One is 
brought down by a ball in the knee ; and, lying on 
the ground, rifle in hand, watches for the man who 
shot him. Soon the rebel's head rises above a 
rock, and the two fire at the same instant. The 
Union man is struck in the mouth, but as he is 
borne down the hill he splutters out: " Never 
mind, that secesh is done for." The next morn- 
ing the rebel is found with the whole upper part 
of his head sho'c av/ay by the other's bullet 

The brave Kentuckians climb or leap up along 
the side of the mountain. Now they are hidden 
in the underbrush, now sheltered by the great 
trees, and now fully exposed in some narrow 
opening, but gradually they near the crest of the 
ridge, and at last are on its very summit. As 
they come in open sight a rebel cries out: 

" How many are there of you ?" 

" Tw^enty-five millions, d m^ you," shouts 

back a Kentucky Union officer. 

Then comes a terrible hand-to-hand struggle, 
and the little band of less than four hundred, over- 
powered by numbers, are driven far down the 
mountain. 

Meanwhile another cannon has opened on the 
hill and round shot and canister fall thickly among 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. -, -.„ 

the weary eleven hundred. Seeing his advance 
about to waver the Union commander sends 
volley after volley from his entire reserve at the 
central point between his two detachments, and 
for a time the enemy is silenced in that quarter. 
But soon it opens again, and then Garfield orders 
all but a chosen hundred upon the mountain. 
There the battle o^rows terrible. Thick and thicker 
swarm the rebels on the crest, sharp and sharper 
rolls the musketry along the valley, and as volley 
after volley echoes among the hills and the white 
smoke curls up in longr wreaths from the crleaminp- 
rifles a dense cloud Qrathers overhead as if to shut 
out the scene of carnage from the very eye of 
Heaven. 

So the bloody work goes on, so the battle 
wavers till the settin^j^ sun wheeline below the hills 
glances along the dense line of rebel steel move- 
ing down to envelop the weary eleven hundred. 
It is an awful moment, biof with the imm.ediate 
fate of Kentucky. At its very crisis two figures 
stand out against the fading sky, boldly defined 
in the foreo-round. 

One is in Union blue with a little band of 
heroes about him. He is posted on a projecting 
rock which is scarred wi^h bullets and in full view 
oi both armies. His head is uncovered, his hair 
streaming in the wind, his face upturned in the 
darkening daylight and from his soul is going up 
a prayer — a prayer for Sheldon and reinforce- 



W 



I 5q life and public career of 

ments. He turns his eyes to the northward, his 
lips tighten, he pulls off his coat and throws it into 
the air and it lodges in a tree top out of reach, 
then he says to his hundred men: 

"Boys, we must go at them." 

The men threw up their caps with a wild shout 
and rush in, following the Union colonel who led 
them at a run, and in his shirt sleeves. 

The other figure is in Rebel gray. Moving 
out to the brow of the opposite hill and placing a 
glass to his eye, he too takes a long look to the 
northward. Suddenly he starts, for he sees some- 
thing which the other on lower orround does not 
distineuish. Soon he wheels his horse and the 
word "Retreat" echoes along the valley between 
them. It is his last word; for six rifles crack, 
and the rebel major lies on the ground quivering. 
The one in blue looks to the north a^-ain as he 
clambers up the mountain and now floating proudly 
among the trees he sees the starr)^ banner, that ban- 
ner that has meant liberty and life to millions. It is 
Sheldon and his fences. On they come like the 
rushine wind fillina- the air with their shoutino-. 
The rescued eleven hundred take up the strain 
and then above the swift pursuit, above the lessen- 
ing conflict, above the last boom of wheeling- 
cannon goes the wild huzza of victory. 

As they come back from the short pursuit, the 
young commander grasps man after man by the 
hand, and says: 



JAMES A. G ARTIE LD. j5^ 

" God bless you, boys ! You have saved [Ccn 
tucky !" 

They had, Indeed, and In a v/ondcrful ba: 
Says that f^enlal writer, Edmund KIrke : "In i 
history of the late war, there Is not another hke It. 
]/,Ieasured by the forces en^^a^'ed, the valor dis- 
played and the results that followed, It throvv's Into 
the shade the achievements of even that mighty 
host tliat saved the nation. Eleven liundred foot- 
sore and v/eary men, v/Ithout cannon, charged up 
a rocky hill, over stumps, over stones, over fallen 
trees, over Idr^h Intrenchments, rl'-^ht Into the face 
of five thousand fresh troops with twelve pieces 
of artillery !" 

To tlie reader, the action may seem Insignificant, 
but It was of considerable Importance to the Fed- 
eral armies at this juncture. Captain F. H. Mason, 
In his liistory of the Forty-second Ohio Infantry, 
defines Its place In history : 

"The battle of Middle Creek, trifling though 
it may hz considered In comparison Vv'ith later con- 
tests, Vv'as the first substantial victory vv^on for the 
Union cause. At Big Bethel, Bull Run, in Tdis- 
souri, and at various points at which the Union 
and Confederate forces had come In contact, the 
latter had been uniformly victorious. The people 
of the North, p-ivin^ freely of their men and their 
substance in response to- each successive call of 
the p-overnment, had Ijn:'- and anxiously watched 
and v/aited for a little gleam of victory to show 

lO 



1 64 



LIFE AiVD PUBLIC CAREER OF 



that northern valor was a match for southern Im- 
petuosity In the field. They had waited in vain 
since the disaster at Bull Run, during the previous 
summer, and hope had almost yielded to despair. 
Ihe story of Garfield's success at Middle Creek 
came, therefore, like a benediction to the Union 
cause. ThouQrh won at a trifllno- cost It w^as deci- 
sive so far as concerned the purposes of that im- 
mediate campaign. Marshall's force was driven 
from Kentucky, and made no further attempt to 
occupy the Sandy Valley. The Important vic- 
tories at Mill Spring, Forts Donaldson and Henry» 
and the repulse at Shiloh, followed. The victory 
at Mill Creek proved the first wave of a returning 
tide." 

Speaking of the engagement, Garfield said, after 
he had gained a wider experience In war: " It was a 
very rash and Imprudent affair on my part. If I 
had been an officer of more experience, I probably 
should not have made the attack. As It was, hav- 
ing gone into the army with the notion that fight- 
ing was our business. I didn't know any better.'' 

"And, during It all," says Judge Clark, who was 
in the Forty-second, "Garfield was the soldiers' 
friend. Such was his affection for the men that 
he would divide his last rations with them, and 
nobody ever found anytliing better at head-quar- 



ters than die rest got 



» 



^ AMES A. GARFIELD. j^y 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A STEAMBOAT CAPTAIN AND THE CAPTURE OF POUND GAP. 

r 

THE night closed in upon the happy, hui 
tired men ; another night, the long watches 
of which were lived out upon the frozen 
ground. Garfield took the time to consider the 
situation. Marshall's forces were broken and de- 
moralized. Though in full retreat, they might be 
overtaken and destroyed ; but his own troops 
were half dead with fatigue and exposure, and had 
less than three days* rations. In these circum- 
stances, Garfield prudently decided to occupy 
Prestonburg, and await the arrival of supplies be- 
fore dealing a final blow at the enemy. On the 
day succeeding the battle he issued the following 
address to his army, which tells, in brief, the story 
of the campaign: 

" Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade : I am 
proud of you all! In four v/eeks you have 
marched, some eighty, and some a hundred miles, 
over almost impassable roads. One night in four 
you have slept, often in the storm, with only a 
wintry sky above your heads. You have marched 
in the face of a foe of more tnan double your num- 
ber, led on by chiefs who have won a national re- 



I 53 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

nown under the old flar^, entrenched in hills of his 
own choosing", and strengdiened by all the appli- 
ances of military art. With no experience but the 
consciousness of your own manhood, you have 
driven him from his strongholds, pursued his in- 
glorious fiis^ht, and compelled him to meet you in 
battle. When forced to ficht, he sour^ht the shel- 
tcr of rochs and hills. You drove him from his 
position, leaving scores of his bloody dead un- 
burled. His artillery thundered against you, but 
you compelled him to flee by the light of his burn- 
ing stores, and to leave even the banner of l:is 
rebellion bcl;ind him. I rreet you as brave men. 
Ci'.r common country will not forget you. She 
will not for-^et the sacred dead who fell beside 
3'ou, nor t!:ose of your comrades Vv'ho won scars 
of honor on the field. I have recalled you from 
the pursuit, that you may regain vigor for still 
rreater exertions. Let no one tarnish his w^ell-" 
earned honor by any act unworthy an American 
soldier. Remember your duties as American citi- 
zens, and sacredly respect the rights and property 
vA those widi whom you may come in contact. 
Let it not be said that o-ood men dread the ap- 
proach of an American army. Cfncers and sol- : 
>, your duty has been nobly done. For this I 1 
you." 
The retreat of Marshall had by no means gotten 
rid of the dangers by which the small army of the ■ 
Union colonel was hampered. A fresh peril now 






•"fl- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



169 



beset the force. An unusually violent rain-storm 
broke out, the mountain gorges were all flooded, 
and the Sandy rose to such a height that steam- 
boat-men pronounced It impossible to ascend the 
stream with supplies. The troops were almost 
out of rations, and the rough, mountainous coun- 
try was Incapable of supporting them. Colonel 
Garfield had gone down the river to Its mouth. 
He ordered the "Sandy Valley,' a small steamer, 
which had been In the quarter-Uiaster's ser\ace, to 
take In a load of supplies and start up. The cap- 
tain declared it was Impossible. Efforts v/ere 
made to ret other vessels, but without success. 

Finally, Garfield ordered the captain and crew 
on board, and stationed himself at the wheel. The 
captain still protested that no boat could possibly 
stem the raging current, but Garfield turned her 
head up the stream and began the perilous trip. 
The water In the usually shallow river was sixty 
feet deep, and the tree-tops along the banks were 
almost submeror-ed. The little vessel trcmxblcd 
from stem to stern at every motion of the engines, 
the water whirled her about as If she were a skiff, 
and the utmost speed the steam could give her 
was three miles an hour. When nio-ht fell the 
captain of the boat begged permission to tie up. 
To attempt ascending the flood in the darkness 
was madness. But Garfield kept his place at the 
wheel, now as always no mere considerations of 
danger affected his purpose. Finally, In one of 



J yQ Z/FB AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the sudden bends of die river diey drove, widi a 
full head of steam, into the quicksand of the bank. 
Every effort to back off was in vain. Mattocks 
were procured, and excavations made around the 
embedded bow. Still she stuck. Garfiekl, at 
last, ordered a boat to be lowered to take a line 
across to the opposite bank. The crew protested 
aealnst venturin^r out on the flood. Garfield 
leaped Into the ooat and steered it over. The 
force of the current carried them far below the 
point they sought to reach, but they finally suc- 
ceeded in makinor fast to a tree, and ricreinof a 
v/indlass with rails sufficiently powerful to draw 
the vessel off and get her once more afloat. 

It vras on Saturday that the boat left the mouth 
of the Sandy. All night, all day Sunday, and all 
through Sunday night they kept up their struggle 
with the current, Garlielcl leaving the wheel only, 
ei^ht hours out of the whole time, and that durine 
the day. By nine o'clock on Monday morning 
they reached the camp, and were received with tu- 
muhuous cheering. Garfield himself could hardly 
escape being borne to head-quarters on the shoul- 
ders of the deliixhted men. 

It was but natural that the confused retreat of 
ihe troops under Humphrey l^.Iarshall should have 
precipitated an alarm among the simple country 
people. The flying rebels had spread the most ex- 
aggerated reports of the strength and character 
of the Union forces, and the inhabitants of the 



JAMES A, GARFIELD, ^ I 7 1 

district looked for the Immediate inauguration of 
a relg-n of terror, that should deprive all non- 
combatants of life and liberty. Fleeing from 
their homes, they took refuge in the woods and 
mountains, and the towns were well-niMi deserted 
for a time. On his return with the supplies, Garfield 
determined to attempt the quieting of the fright- 
ened people, and to that end issued the following : 

'■ Citizens of Sandy Valley : I have come among you 
to •estore the honor of the Union, and to bring back the old 
bamer which you once loved, but which, by the machina- 
tions of evil men, and by mutual misunderstanding, has been 
dshonored among you. To those who are in arms against 
tie Federal Government I offer only the alternate of battle or 
mconditional surrender. But to those who have taken no 
part in this war, who are in no way aiding or abetting the 
enemies of this Union — even to those who hold sentiments 
averse to the Union, but will give no aid or comfort to its 
enemies — I offer the full protection of the Government, both 
in their persons and property. 

^' Let those who have been seduced away from the love of 
their country to follow after and aid the destroyers of our 
peace lay down their arms, return to their homes, bear true 
allegiance to the Federal Government, and they shall also 
enjoy like protection. The army of the Union wages no war 
of plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. 
Let all peace-loving citizens who have fled from their homes 
return and resume again the pursuits of peace and industry. 
If citizens have suffered any outrages by the soldiers under 
my command, I invite them to make known their complaints 
to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed and the offenders 
punished. I expect the friends of the Union in this valley to 
banish from among them all private feuds, and let a liberal 



jy2 Z/i"Zr AXD PUBLIC CAREER OF 

love of country direct their conduct toward those v/ho hive 
been so sidly Cotraycd and misguided, hopinrj that these (!r.;,s 
of turbulence may soon be ended and the days of the He 
public soon return. 

''J. A. GARFIELD, 

" Colonel Commandln;' Eri -adc." 

Encouraged by this promise of protection, tl^e 
people soon issued from their hidinj-places end 
began to flock about the Union head-quarters. 
From them Ganield obtained various reports of tlie 
whereabouts and intentions of Marshall. By sone 
he was told that Llarshall, reinforced by three Vi-- 
ginia regiments and six field-pieces, had made \ 
stand and was fortifying himself in a strong position 
about thirty mdes above, on the waters of the 
Bie Beaver. Others claimed to knov/ that he v/as^ 
merely collecting provisions and preparing to re- 
treat into Tennessee as soon as the runs and 
rivers should become passable. 

All information pointed to the truth that I^dar- 
shall had made a stand, and was still within the 
limits of Kentucky. Garfleld determined to learn 
Ills exact position, and dispatched a body of one 
hundred cavalry, under Captain Jenkins, of the 
Ohiio cavalry, with orders to go up the Big Sandy 
as far as Piketon, and not to return until they had 
ascertained the position and intentions of tl:e 



enemy. 



From information brought back by Captain 
Jenkins, and reports gathered from otlier sources 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. j ^ ^ 

— mainly from tha scout Jordan — durlncr the sue- 
c:eding \veek3 Garfield v/as pretty vrell able to 
l:cep posted as to the movements of Humphrey 
Marshall, who v/as still sufficiently near to be ob- 
noxious. 1 ct us see v/hat this was. 

Pound Gap Is a wild and Irregular opening in 
the Cumberland rvlountalns, about forty-five miles 
south-v/est of Fiheton, and leads Into Virginia. It Is 
the only avenue for v/a^on communication between 
the southerly portions of Virginia and Kentucky, 
and derives its name from the fertile track of 
meadow-land vvdiich skirts the southerly base of 
the mountains, and Is inclosed by a narrov/ stream 
called Pound Fork. In the early history of the 
district, this mountain locality Vv^as the home of a 
tribe of Indians, who made Irrerular and constant 
expeditions into Virginia in search of plunder. 
Returnlnor with the stolen cattle of the settlers 
they pastured them in this m.eadovv' Inclosure. In 
this way it was christened the " Pound," which in 
time it bestowed both to the gap and the streamlet. 

In this " Pound," and on the summiit cf tl:c 
gorge through which the road passes, the rebels 
l:ad built long huts, capable of quartering nearly 
a thousand men; and across the opening, to malce 
their position apparently impregnable, they had 
built directly across the gap a formidable breast- 
work — completely blocking up the "way, and be- 
hind which five hundred men could resist success- 
fully five tliousand. 



1/4 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



111 several weeks Pound Gap had been garri- 
soned by about six hundred rebel militia under 
a Major Thompson, and though incapable of ef- 
fective service in the field the troops had been of 
no small value to the rebel cause by holding tliis 
gateway into Virginia and establishing a constant 
reign of terror among all the loyal citizens of the 
surrounding country. Imitating the Indians, the 
rebels Vv^ould issue from this stronghold in small 
parties, descend to the valleys, rob and murder 
the peaceful inhabitants, and before pursuit was 
possible would be once mor<2 behind the protect- 
ing breastworks. Many of these predatory bands 
had been captured through the ceaseless activity 
of the Kentucky cavalry, but as soon as one party 
was captured another would start out from the 
stronghold to continue the work of spoliation and 
perpetuate the reign of blood. It soon became 
evident that the only way to effectually stop these 
inroads was to break up once and forever the 
nest on the mountain. This Garfield had lone 
determined to do. He waited only for reliable 
information as to the strength and position of 
the rebels "and for a definite description of the 
route to be taken to cfct in the rear of the in- 
trenchments. 

This information the scout Jordan, after sur- 
mounting many difficulties and encountering great 
dangers, was enabled to supply. He made for 
Garfixeld an accurate map of the position and 
wrote to him: 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j ^ - 

"General Marshall has Issued an order for a 
grand muster of the rebel militia on the 15th of 
March. They are to meet at the ' Pound ' In the 
rear of their Intrenchments, and it Is expected they 
will muster in sufficient strength to enter Kcn- 
.tucky and drive the Union forces before them." 

Garfield at once determined to forestall the 
Intended gathering and to break up the entire 
swarm of cruerlllas. He set out on the followinp* 
morning with three days' rations in the haversacks 
of his men, and a quantity of provisions packed 
on the backs of mules. He took with him two 
hundred and twenty of the Fortieth Ohio, under 
Colonel Cranor, two hundred of the Forty-second 
Ohio, under ]\Iajor "Pardee, one hundred and 
eighty of the? Twenty-second Kentucky, under 
Major Cook, and a hundred cavalry, under Major 
McLaughlin, a total of seven hundred. 

The roads were deep In mud, and the countless 
rivulets that thread through this mountainous 
region v/ere filled with Ice and swollen to the size 
of respectable torrents. The little army made 
light of the difficulties, however, and pressed on 
with perseverance over the rough roads in the 
midst of the drenchincr rain. Late on the second 
day Elkborn Creek was reached, a small stream 
which flows alonof the northern base of the moun- 
tains and empties Into the Big Sandy, only two 
miles belov/ the rebel position. Here the troops 
went into camp on the wet ground, and waited the 
comlncr of dawn. 

o 



176 



KirE AXD PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Garlield's plan v/as to send. his one hundred 
cavalrymen up the road to make a demonstration 
against the enemy's intrenchmcnts, and to cng-agc 
his attention while he, with the six hundred infan- 
try, should climb the steep side of the mountain 
and, filino- alonp- a narrow ledi^e of roc!:s at the 
summit, reach the gap and attack the rebels upon 
the rlan!;. To prove successful, absolute secrecy 
was required ; and to obtain this every male resi- 
dent of the vicinity was brought into camp and 
detained, that he should not carry informxation to 
the enemy. Questions were asked of every one 
as to some practicable route to the rear of the 
rebel intrenchmcnts. There was no route. The 
mountain v/as steep, and in many places precipi- 
tous, and it was tanked with dense thickets, cb- 
structed with fallen logs, and covered with huge 
boulders vv-hich, coated Vv'ith ice and snow, formed 
an almost impassable barrier to the passage of 
any living thing, save the panther or the cata- 
mount. Then again, even if the adventurous 
band succeeded in gaining the mountain summit 
in the face of these obstacles, there Vv'as still to be 
traversed for a long distance a narrow ledge, 
buried three feet in treacherous snow, where 
one false step would be dangerous — a place 
where ten men could dispute the passage of ten 
thousand. 

Though tempted with liberal offers of money, 
not one of tlie " natives " vvould undertake to 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j^-r 

guide the expedition on the perilous journey about 
to be undertaken. Garfield laid down at midnight 
on t/ie floor of a miserable log shanty, near the 
foot of the mountains. The prospect was in no 
way encouraging. But, turning back was out of 
the question. Even if failure was to be the re- 
ward of his pains, the Union commander deter- 
mined to scale the mountain in the morning. 

These thoughts in his mind, he dropped off to 
sleep. Before morning he was aroused by a num- 
ber of men entering his apartment — one of them 
said : 
. " Colonel, this old fellow has just come into 
camp, and offers to guide us over the mountains. 
He says he knows every road of diis region, and 
can lead us to the rebel nest in safety." 

Garfield raised himself on his blanket, and by 
the dim light of the logs that were smouldering 
on the hearth looked narrowly at the old native. 
He was apparendy not far from seventy, with a 
tall, bent form, and long hair and beard which 
were almost of snowy whiteness. He wore the 
common homespun of the district, and over his 
shoulder carried, slung by a stout leather thong, a 
brighdy-burnished squirrel rifle. His enormous 
beard and huo-e slouch hat more than half hid his 
face, but enough of it was exposed to show a 
tawny, smoke-begrimed skin, and strongly-marked, 
determined features. Hasdly scanning him from 
head to foot, the Union officer said, smiling 



'Z 



178 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



" You 1 old man, do you think you can climb 
the mountahi ?" 

'' I hev done It, gineral, many and many a 
time," said the native in a voice that sounded 
much like a cracked kettle. 

" I know, but in winter the slope is a sheet of 
ice and three feet of snow on the summit." 

"I komed down it not ten days ago. Whar 1 
kin come down ye kin go up." 

*'I should think so — up or down. Is there a 
bridle path we can follow ?" 

" Yes, eight miles bek>w. But ye'd better make 
yer own path. Ye must cum unto them unbe- 
known and sudden, and to do that ye must foller 
the path squirrels travil." 

"And do you think we can get over It safely?" 

"Yes, if ye's men of narve as means to do 
what they has come about." 

"Well," continued Garfield, after a pause, "what 
induces an old man like you to undertake a thing 
so hazardous ?" 

"The hope to rid ther kentry of a set of 
murderin' thieves as Is carrying terror and death 
inter every poor man's home in all the valley." 

"And what reward do you look for ?" 

"Nary reward — only your word that I shall go 
as I come, with no one to let or hinder me." 

Garfield took a long, steady look at him, and 
replied: 

" Very well. I'll trust you. Be here early In 
the morning." 



JAMES A. GARFIELI>, j ^^ 

When the mornlnof came, the snow was falline 
so thickly that objects only a few rods distant were 
totally invisible. At nine o'clock, the little body 
of cavalry was started up the road to engage the 
attention of the enemy and draw him from his in- 
trenchments. Then the infantry was set In motion. 
In a lono-, bristling, serpent-like column, catching 
at every twig, and shrub, and fallen log that lay 
in their way, they clambered slowly up the Icy 
mountain-side, the old guide leading the way and 
steadying his steps by the long Iron-shod staff 
In use among mountaineers. The rlclge at this 
point rises two thousand feet above the valley, 
and half-way up breaks Into abrupt precipices, 
which seem to defy the approach of any foot but 
that of the deer. After a hard scramble throueh 

o 

the tangled thickets, over the Ice-coated rocks and 
along the steep ridge which crowns the summit of 
the mountain, the native, turning sharply to the 
left, said to Garfield : 

" You are now within half a mile of the rebel 
position. Yonder Is their outside picket, but the 
way Is clear ; press on at the double and you have 
them," 

The picket had now descried the advancing 
column, and firing his gun, he set out at the top of 
his speed for the rebel Intrenchm.ents. A dozen 
bullets made shrill music about his ears, but he 
kept on, and the eager blue-coats followed. When 
within sight of the rebel camp, a line was thrown 



jgQ LIFE AXD PUBLIC CAREER OF 

down alon^- the eastern slope of the mountain 
and pressui^ rapidly forward was formed along 
the deep crorcre through which the hio^h road 
passes. Up to this time the rebels had been skir- 
mishing" with the cavalry in front of their intrench- 
ments, but now they gathered on the hill directly 
opposite the advanced portion of the Union in- 
fantry 

To try the range, Garfield sent a volley across 
the gorge, and as the smoke cleared away, he saw 
the unformed rebel Hne melt like mist into the 
opposite forest. The enemy's position being now 
understood, the Fortieth and Forty-second Ohio 
were ordered to the already formed left wing, and 
then alonof the line rane the words, "Press for- 
ward, scale the hill and carry it \vith the bayonet!" 

A ringing shout w^as the only answer, and then 
the long column swept down the ridge, across the 
ravine, through the rebel camp and up the oppo- 
site mountain. The rebels gradually fell back 
among the trees, but when the Union bayonets 
clambered up the hill they broke and ran in the 
wildest confusion. The Unionists followed, firinqf 
as they ran and for a few moments the mount^Jns 
echoed with the quick reports of the Ohio rifles. 
Pursuit in the dense forest was impossible and 
soon the recall was sounded. 

Only one was killed and seven were wounded.! 
But tliis well-nigh bloodless victory rid Eastern 
Kentucky of rebel rule. The troops were re-as-J 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. jO 

sembled and passed a comfortable night In the 
enemy's quarters, faring- sumptuously upon the 
viands there found. The next mornlnor the cabins, 
sixty in number, were burned, the breastworks 
destroyed and the general set out on his return 
to PIketon, which he reached the followlne nio-ht, i 
having been absent four days and having marched 
in that time about one hundred miles over a rouo-h 

o 

and broken country. 

Six days afterward an order was received to 
leave a small garrison at PIketon, and to transfer 
the rest of the command, as rapidly as possible, to 
Louisville. 

This ended the campaign on the Big Sandy, a 
campaign that more than justified every hope of 
Garfield's friends, and won him a military reputa- 
tion that has continued unto the end. The opera- 
tions in the Sandy Valley had been conducted 
with such energy and skill as to receive the special 
commendation of the commandinof-eeneral, and of 
the Government. General Buell was moved to 
words of unwonted praise, and sent to Garfield the 
following congratulatory order: 

Head-quarters Dsi'Artment of the Ohio, 

LouisviLUi., Ky., January 20th, 1862. 

Gefieral Orders, No. 40. 

The general commanding takes occasion to thank General 

Garfield and his troops for their successful campaign against 

the rebel force under General Marshall, on the Big Sandy, 

and their gallant conduct in battle. They have overcome 

1 1 



,32 ^^^^ ^^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

formidable difficulties in the character of country, condition 
of the roads and the inclemency of the season ; and, without 
artillery, have in several engagements, terminating in the 
battle of Middle Creek, on the loth inst., driven the enemy 
from his intrenched position and forced him back into the 
mountains, with a loss of a large amount of baggage and 
stores, and many of his men killed or captured. 

These services have called into action the highest qualities 
of a soldier — fortitude, perseverance and courage. 
By order, Don Carlos Buell, 

Major- General Commanding, 

The War Department, to show its appreciation, 
made Colonel Garfield a Brigadier-General, the 
commission bearing the date of the battle of Mid 
die Creek, January loth, 1862. And the country, 
without understanding very well the details of the 
campaign, fully appreciated the tangible result. 
The discomfiture of Humphrey Marshall was a 
source of special chagrin to the rebel sympathizers 
in Kentucky, and of amusement and admiration 
throughout the loyal West. Garfield at once took 
rank in the public estimation, as worthily among 
the most promising of the younger volunteer 
generals. 

In his ''Ohio In the War," Whitelaw Reld passes 
this judgment on the campaign: ** Later criticism 
•will confirm the general verdict tlien passed 
• on the Sandy Valley campaign. It was tlie 
first of the brilliant series of successes that made 
the spring of 1862 so memorable. Mill Springs, 
Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Nashville, Island 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. jg^ 

No. lo and Memphis, followed In quick succession; 
but it was to Garfield's honor that he had opened 
this season of victories. His plans, as we have 
seen, were based on sound military principles ; the 
energy which he threw into their execution was 
thoroughly admirable, and his management of the 
raw volunteers, was such that they acquired the 
fullest confidence in their commander and endured 
the hardships of the campaign with fortitude not 
often shown in the first field-service of new troops. 
But the operations were on a small scale, and 
their chief significance lay in the capacity they de- 
veloped, rather than In their intrinsic Importance." 



i84 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OFF TO AID GRANT. 



GARFIELD has now to be transferred to a 
wider field of operations. His conspicu- 
ous ability, developed In battle, and his 
great bravery could not be allowed to remain idle 
within the bounds of the Big Sandy district, so 
effectively freed by him from the control of the 
rebels. 

When he arrived at Louisville, he found that the 
Army of the Ohio was already beyond Nashville, 
on Its way to aid Grant at Pittsburg Landing. He 
hastened after it, and reported to General Buell 
^bout thirty miles south of Columbia, and under 
his orders at once assumed command of the 
Twentieth Brigade, then a part of the division un- 
der General Thomas J. Wood. General Wood was 
making all possible effort to reach the Union forces 
un3er Grant, as the approaching battle with Sidney 
Johnson was anticipated as very probably a battle 
of the greatest importance. 

The battle began on the morning of April 6th. 
About ten that day, Grant hearing that Wood, 
with the second division of Buell's army, had ar- 
rived at Savannah, sent him the following order : 

"You v-:ill move your command, wltli the utmost 




Pickets on Duty. 




«>-• 



mMs^e^S^^S^ 



Army Head-quarters. 



JAMES A. GARFMLLD. jg^ 

dispatch, to the river at this point (landing-), where 
steamers will be in readiness to convey you to 
Pittsbun^." « 

o 

Still later in the day another dispatch was sent 
to the commandinof officer of Buell's forces, iireino- 
him to hurry up. 

It Is not necessary to recount here how 
thoroughly the Union forces were whipped on the 
first day, and how extremely probable It seemed 
that the defeat would turn into a rout. But here, 
as on many another field later In the bloody con- 
flict, Ohio saved the day. When a halt was called 
on the evening of the 6th It was determined by 
Grant that the Ohio troops were to form upon the 
left In the morning, and the attack 'was to be re- 
newed. Durmir the nio^ht of the 6th, Buell busied 
himself In getting his troops up. Nelson's column 
and nearly all of Crittenden's and McCook's divi- 
sions were ferried across the river and put In 
position. All night long- the gun-boats dropped 
shells at Intervals on the rebel lines, and the woods 
caught fire, lighting up the battle-field for miles 
away. But for a merciful shower of rain thousand? 
of helpless wounded would have been burned to 
death on that blazing battle-field. The orders 
were: 

''As soon as It Is light enough to see, attack 
with a heavy skirmish line, and when you have 
found the enemy, throw upon him your whole 
force, leavin;^^ no reserve." 



J g3 LJFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

With the first gray of dawn this oraer was put 
in execution. The Ohio troops were given the 
left of the field, Grant's army, or what of It could 
be gathered together, undertook to form and main- 
tain the right. As rapidly as the Ohioans could 
come up they went into action. As may be in- 
ferred, they fought with splendid energy. During 
the early part of the day Grant met the First Ohio 
marching toward the northern part of the field, 
and immediately in front of a position which it was 
important should be taken. The regiment on the 
left was fighting hard, but about to yield ; In fact, 
had given away, when Grant called upon the Ohio 
boys to change direction and charge. The sol- 
diers, with a cheer, obeyed, and the retreating 
troops, seeing what was going on, took new cour- 
age, and rallying with loud shouts, drove the 
enemy from their strong position. 

Gariield had all this time been actively engaged 
in every possible exertion to bring up his brigade 
in time to assist before either defeat or victory 
silenced the cannonading, that he so distinctly 
heard. About one P. M., he reached the front, 
and with a wild cheer his men dashed at the rebels, 
he leadinor throup-h the storm of lead. The fresh 
onslaught, in which Garfield's brigade participated, 
changed the fortunes of the day, and the rebels 
were soon flying from where they had lought so 
long and well. The Union troops were too m.uch 
exhausted for pursuit, and halting In the camps 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



189 



from which they had been driven the day before, 
*\^ere content to call It a victory. 

On the 9th, the War Department issued the 
following complimentary order to all concerned: 

" The thanks.of the department are hereby given 
to Generals Grant and Buell, and their forces, for' 
the glorious repulse of Beauregard, at Pittsburg, 
in Tennessee." 

The next morning (the 8di), Garfield's brigade 
formed a part of Sherman's advance, and partici- 
pated in a sharp encounter with the enemy's rear 
guard, a i^yft miles beyond the battle-field. The 
brigade formed a part of the Union advance upon 
Corinth, to which place Beauregard had retreated. 
This advance was slow, so slow that it took six 
weeks to march fifteen miles. It was not until the 
2 1 St of May that the armies were fairly in line, 
three miles from Corinth, and everything ready for 
the expected battle. 

But all the preparations for a battle were of no 
use, and when Halleck was ready to engage 
Beauregard, the latter was no longer in Corinth. 
He had retreated. Garfield's briofade had the 
empty honor of being among the earliest that en- 
tered the abandoned town. 

Then when General Buell, turning eastward, 
sought to prepare for a new aggressive campaign 
vv^th his inadequate forces, General Gai-field was 
assigned the task of rebuilding the bridges and 
reopening the Memphis and Charlestown railroad 



J QQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

eastward from Corinth to Decatur. Crossing 
the Tennessee here, he advanced to Huntsville, 
where he remained durina- the rest of that cam- 
paign, carrying out every instruction received, 
with absolute fideHty, and at all times with perfect 
success. 

One of the constant objects of General Buell 
durinor the time General Garfield was encraeed in 
bridge-building, a task for which his energy and 
familiarity with building-work peculiarly fitted him, 
was the enforcement of discipline and the reduc- 
tion of the somewhat loose habits of the men of 
his command to the army standard. Court mar- 
tials were frequent, and it was not always easy to 
find officers thoroughly fitted for such duties. 
Garfield's legal mind, his dispassionate, fully-rea- 
soned judgment, singled him out from among his 
fellows for just such work. His first detail in this 
class of army experience was the case of Colonel 
Turchin, charged with committing gross excesses. 
These charges were neglect of duty, to the preju- 
dice of good order and discipline, in permitting 
the w^anton and disgraceful pillage of the town of 
Athens, Alabama ; conduct unbecoming an officer 
and a gentleman in failing to pay a hotel bill In 
the town ; and Insubordination in disobeying the 
orders against the molestation of peaceful citizens 
in persons and property. Some of the specifica- 
tions particularized very shameful conduct. The 
court found him guilty (except as to the hotel bill 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j g j 

Story) and sentenced him to dismissal from the 
service. Six of its members recommended him to 
clemency, but General Buell was determined, and 
the sentence was carried out. The newspapers 
took up the case and championed the colonel, and 
those of Chicago were very vehement in his de- 
fense. On his return to Chicago, he was given a 
public reception, and the President, as If to In- 
dorse the deeds of the disgraced colonel, ap- 
pointed him a brigadier. 

The old tendency to fever and ague, contracted 
in the days of his tow-path 'experience on the 
Ohio Canal, was now aggravated In the malari- 
ous climate of the South, and Garfield returned 
home on sick-leave, on the ist of August. Hardly 
had he started for Ohio, when the secretary 
of war,, who seems, at this early day, to have 
formed a high estimate of Garfield, which he con- 
tinued to entertain through the war, issued orders 
to him to proceed to Cumberland Gap, and relieve 
General George W. Morgan of his command. 
But when they were received, Garfield was too ill 
to leave his bed. A month later, the secretary 
ordered him to report In person, at Washington, 
as soon as his health would permit. 

On his arrival, soon after, it was found that the 
estimate placed upon his knowledge of law, his 
judgment and his loyalty, had led to his selection 
as one of the first members of the court-martial 
for the trial of the noted Fitz John Porter. 



192 



LfPE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The Intimacy that sprung up during this trial be- 
tween Garfield and General Hunter, the president 
of the court-martial, led to an application for him 
for service in South Carolina, whither Hunter was 
about to start. Garfield's strong anti-slavery views 
had been greatly strengthened by his experience 
thus far during the war, and the South Carolina ap- 
pointment under a commander so radical as Hunter 
was on this account particularly gratifying. But 
in the midst of his fears and preparations the old 
army in which he had served, plunged into the 
battle of Stone River. A part of the bitter cost 
of the victory that followed was the loss of 
Garesche, the lamented chief of staff to the com- 
manding general. Garfield was at once selected 
to take his place, the appointment to South Car- 
olina was revoked, and early in January, 1863, he 
was ordered out to join Major-General Willllam S. 
Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the 
Cumberland. 

When he arrived at Rosecrans's head-quarters 
that officer was already prejudiced against him. 
For the general understood that he was a preacher 
who had gone into politics, and a man of that cast 
he was naturally opposed to. Rosecrans kept 
him at head-quarters for a couple of days, as he 
desired to make his acquaintance and sound the 
man before assigning him to active duty. The 
more he saw of him the more he liked him, and 
finally he gave Garfield his choice, confirmation as 



. JAMES A. GARFIELD. j « 

chief of staff or the command of a brigade. Most 
men would have taken the brigade, but Garfield 
chose to remain with the general. That Rose- 
crans never regretted the appointment as chief of 
staff, which he made immediately after the Inter- 
view, Is evidenced by what he has said. 

" We were too^ether until the Chattanooga affair. 
I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, 
an earnest and devoted patriot, and a man of the 
highest honor. His views were large and he 
was possessed of a thoroughly comprehensive 
mind." 

His appointment as chief of staff gave great 
satisfaction throughout the army, and it was every- 
where expressed. The country was equally 
pleased, especially Ohio. The editor of the Zenia 
TorcJdight, a paper published at Garfield's home, 
thus commented on the appointment: 

"We have known General James A. Garfield for 
several years, and entertain for him the hiehest 
personal regard. He Is one of the most eloquent 
men In Ohio, as well as one of the ripest scholars. 
Socially and morally, he has no superior. He is 
popular with all, as the attachment of his scholars, 
as well as his soldiers, for him demonstrates. 

" In respect to abilities, nature has by no means 
been unfriendly to him ; and he has neither de- 
spised nor slighted her gifts. A severe course of 
mental training, combined with the mental prac- 
tice obtained by presiding over one of the colleges 



IQA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

of Ohio, has fully developed his natural endow- 
ments- 

" Above all these considerations, every one re- 
spects General Garfield for his stern, unyielding, 
iincomDromisIng patriotism. The permanent good 
of his country, the restoration of its unity, and the ■ 
perpetuation of the National power and glory 
through all coming time, are the objects which he 
keeps steadily in view." 

Once installed in his new position, he rapidly 
grew into a favorite. Possessed of sound, natural 
sense, an excellent judgment, a highly-cultivated 
Intellect, and the deserved reputation of a success- 
ful military leader, he was soon to be the mentor of 
the staff, and his opinions sought, and his counsels 
heeded by many who were older and not less dis- 
tinoj-ulshed than himself. 

Edmund Kirke, In his picturesque war story, 
"Down in Tennessee," written In 1863, draws the 
following pen-portrait of Garfield in his new 
capacity: 

"In a corner by the window, seated at a small 
pine desk — a sort of packing-box, perched on a 
long-legged stool, and divided Into pigeon-holes, 
with a turn-down lid — was a tall, deep-chested, 
sinewy-built man, with regular, massive features, a 
full, clear blue eye, slightly tinged with gray, and 
a \\\<y\\ broad forehead, risinof Into a rldire over the 
eyes, as if it had been thrown up by a plow. There 
was something singularly engaging ia his opea 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j ^ ^ 

expressive face, and his whole appearance indi- 
cated, as the phrase goes, 'great reserve power.' 
His uniform, though cleanly brushed and sitting 
easily upon him, had a sort of democratic air, and 
everything about him seemed to denote that he 
was *a man of the people.' A rusty slouched 
hat, large enough to have fitted Daniel Webster, 
lay on the desk before him ; but a glance at that 
was not needed to convince me that his head held 
more than the common share of brains. Thou eh 

o 

he is yet young — not thirty-three — the reader has 
heard of him, and if he lives he will make his name 
long remembered In our history." 

Garfield was looked upon as the only mature 
member of the staff, Rosecrans having a par- 
tiality for young and gallant spirits, like Captain 
Charles Thompson, Major Bond, Colonel Mickler, 
Captain Hunter Brooke, Major Horace Porter, 
subsequently on Grant's staff, and Major Morton 
McMichael. Not that Garfield was much older than 
these officers, but he had a mature look always, 
and his mood was ever serious, as if there was in 
the p'eril of the nation something more of personal 
concern and personal interest to him than to most 
of his associates. 

It was while acting In this capacity that Gar- 
field had a conversation with Clement C. Valland- 
ingham. Vallandingham having been banished 
for his treasonable sentiments, was broueht to 
Murfeesboro, Tenn., where the army lay, to be 



196 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



sent by flag of truce into the rebel lines, a few 
miles distant, at Tullahoma. When brought into 
camp, Vallandingham was taken, in the usual 
course of business, to Rosecrans's head-quarters, 
and he and Garfield being acquaintances, it was na- 
tural they should fall into conversation, and equally 
natural that the conversation should turn upon 
the policy and conduct of the war, in a political, 
sense. 

Vallandingham was to go off the next day, 
escorted as far as the rebel lines, in the vicinity of 
Tullahoma. He entered Rosecrans's tent at an 
early hour of the morning with an affectation of un- 
concern and lieht-heartedness which he could not 
have felt, threw himself into a tragic attitude, and 
in a mock heroic vein exclaimed, quoting from 
Romeo and Juliet: 

*' Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 

Here he hesitated, when Garfield quickly but 
quietly finished the speech, by adding, in a half 
aside, to the aid-de-camp in charge of the flag of 
truce escort, waiting to convey Vallandingham X.Q 
the rebel lines, 

** I must begone and live, or stay and die." 

Vallandingham, however, overheard and caught 
the hidden meaninof of the citation, and blushed 
scarlet, as he made its application. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. joy 



CHAPTER XV. 



GARFIELD AS CHIEF OF STAFF. 



THE chief of staff should bear the same re^ 
latlon to his general that a minister o\ 
state does to his sovereicrn. What this 
relation is, that brilliant historian, Kinglake, tells 
us in his "Crimean War:" 

" The difference between a servant and a minis- 
ter of state lies in this, that the servant obeys the 
orders given him, without troubling himself con- 
cerning the question whether his master is right or 
wrong, while a minister of state declines to be the 
instrument for giving effect to the measures which 
he deems hurtful to his country. The chancellor of 
the Russian Empire was sagacious and politic. 
That the czar was wronof in thesa transactions 
against Turkey, no man knew better. But, un- 
happily for the czar and for his empire, the minis- 
ter did not enjoy so commanding a station as to 
be able to put restraint upon his sovereign, nor 
even, perhaps, to offer him counsel in his angry 
mood." 

We now see that in some respects our chief of 
staff went through a similar experience. From 
the day of his appointment. General Garfield be- 
came the intimate associate and confidential ad- 



1 98 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



viser of his chief. ' But he did not occupy so 
commanding a station as to be able to put 
restraint upon him. 

The time of General Garfield's arrival marks 
the beginning of that period of quarrels with the 
War Department, in which General Rosecrans 
frittered away his influence and paved the way 
for his removal. That great strategist and gallant 
soldier was always unwise in caring for his own 
interests, and generally was very imprudent in his 
intercourse with his superiors. Yet he was nearly 
always right in his demands, especially when he 
made appeals to the War Department for more 
cavalry and revolving arms. In these requests Gar- 
field was heart and soul with his superior. At the 
same time, he did all in his power to soften the 
tone of asperity which his chief adopted in his 
dispatches to Washington. Sometimes he took 
the responsibility of totally suppressing an angry 
messaofe. Oftener he ventured to soften the 
phraseology. But in all this there was a limit 
beyond which he could not go, and when Rose- 
crans had pronounced certain statements of the 
department, "a profound, grievous, cruel and un- 
generous official and personal wrong," the good 
offices of the chief of staff were no longer effica- 
cious — the breach was irreparable. Thencefor- 
ward he could only strive to make victories in the 
field atone for errors in council. 

He regarded the organization of the army as 



JAMES A. CAKFiELD. j qq 

vitally defective. Almost the first recommendation 
made by General Garfield was the displacement 
of A. M. McCook and T. L. Crittenden. This 
recommendation was made in course of a dis- 
cussion on the battle of Stone River, in which 
Rosecrans explicitly said that these officers had 
shown themselves incompetent in that engage- 
ment. Garfield then, with his clear-headed judg- 
ment — utterly unmoved by popular prejudice, and 
thoroughly well able to perceive real ability be- 
neath concealinof misfortune — recommended that 
McCook and Crittenden be replaced by Irvin Mc- 
Dowell and Don Carlos Buell. Garfield did not 
take the ground that Buell and McDowell had 
proved themselves equal to the high commands 
they had already held, but without discussing this, 
he argued at length their masterly qualifications 
for Important subordinate positions, as w^ell as the 
fact that this offer of an opportunity to come out 
from the cloud under which they rested would In- 
sure their gratitude and incite them to their very 
best efforts. With George H. Thomas already in 
command, with men like these as his associates, and 
with the energy and genius of Rosecrans to lead 
them, the Army of the Cumberland would have 
been the best officered army in the service of the 
nation. But " Rosecrans was unwilling to adopt 
the suo-crestlon — for a reason creditable to his kind- 
ness of heart, but not to his military character — 
Crittenden and McCook ought to be removed, 

12 



200 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



of that he had no doubt, but — 'he hated to Injure 
two such good fellows,' and the two good fellows 
remained w^ith him until Chickamauga." 

From January 4th to June 24th, Rosecrans lay 
at Murfreesboro. Through five months of this 
delay Garfield was with him. The War Depart- 
ment demanded an advance, and, when the spring 
opened, with unusual vehemence. General Rose- 
crans delayed, waidng for cavalry, for reinforce- 
ments, for Grant's movements before VIcksburg, 
for the movements of the enemy, for the opinions 
of the generals. The chief of staff at first ap- 
proved the delays till the army should be strength- 
ened and massed, but long before the delaying 
officers were ready he was urging movement with 
all his power. In a private letter, dated June 1 2th, 
1863, he urged an advance. He wrote: 

"Bragg's army Is weaker than It has been since 
the previous batdes. If Grant succeeds at VIcks- 
burg, It will take weeks to recover from the shock 
and strain. * '^' * The turbulent aspect of 
politics In the loyal States renders a decisive blow 
ao-alnst the enemy at this time of the utmost Im- | 
portance. * * * The country is anxiously hop- 
in^ for the army to move. * * '''* Our true 
objecdve Is the rebel army. Our army Is superior 
in efficiency and morale. * * * For these rea- 
sons I believe an Immediate advance of all our 
available forces Is advisable, and under the provi- 
dence of God will be successful." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^oi 

This Information he procured through a secret^ 
service system that he had estabhshcd ; then, per- 
haps, the most perfect In any of the Union armies. 
As he subsequently said, he refused to beHeve 
that this army, which defeated a superior at Stone 
River, could not now move upon an Inferior one 
with reasonable prospect of success. 

The Army of the Cumberland agreed with Gar- 
held, who was a great favorite with the officers 
and men. His rineinof letter en the atrocities of 
rebel prison-pens, written a few months previous 
to this, had added greatly to his popularity. The 
closlnof sentence of this letter is g-ood readinor even 
now: 

"We cannot believe that the justice of God will 
allow such a people to prosper. Let every soldier 
know that death on the battle-field Is preferable 
to a surrender followed by such outrages as their 
comrades have underi^one." 

Finally, General Rosecrans formally asked his 
corps, division and cavalry generals as to the pro- 
priety of a movement. With singular unanimity, 
though for divers reasons, they opposed it Out 
of seventeen crenerals not one was in favor of an 
immediate advance, and not one was even willing 
to put himself upon the record as in favor of an 
early advance. 

General Garfield collated the seventeen letters 
sent In from the generals In reply to the questions 
of their commander, and fairly refuted their sub- 



QQ2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

stance, coupled with a cogent argument against 
them and In favor of an immediate movement. 
This report, says an excellent authority, is '' the 
ablest military document known to have been sub- 
mitted by a chief of staff to his superior during 
the war." General Garfield stood absolutely 
alone, every general commanding troops having, as 
we have seen, either openly opposed or failed to 
approve an advance. But his statements were so 
clear, and his arguments so convincing, that he 
carried conviction. 

Twelve days after the reception of this report 
the army moved, to the great dissatisfaction of its 
leading generals. One of the three corps com- 
manders, Major-General Thomas L. Crittenden, 
approached the chief of staff at the head-quarters 
the mornlnof of the advance: *Tt is understood, 
sir," he said, " by the general officers of the army 
that this movement is your work. I wish you to 
understand that It Is a rash and fatal move, for 
which you will be held responsible." 

This rash and fatal move was the Tullahoma 
campaign, a campaign perfect in its conception, 
excellent in its general execution, and only hindered 
from resulting in the complete destruction of the 
opposing army by the delays which had too long 
postponed its commencement. It might even yet 
have destroyed Bragg, but for the terrible season 
of rains which set in on the mornlnof of the advance, 
and continued uninterruptedly for the greater part 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 20"" 

of a month. With a week's earficr start it would 
have ended the career of Bragg's army in the war. 
Let us turn aside from the direct story of con- 
flict for a moment to a personal word about our 
hero. One of the most prohfic war writers — J. R. 
Gilmore — who spent a month with Rosecrans, 
gives us some interesting gem pictures of Gar- 
field, as he was at this time, the spring and sum- 
mer of 1863. ''We rode one day out to Sheridan's 
head-quarters," says Gilmore, "and as we entered 
the forest encircling the town, Garfield broke out 
with Hosea Bigelow's poem : 

" * I du believe in Freedom's cause,' 

and if the * Down East poet' would have any ap- 
preciation of his own lines, he should hear them in 
such grand, old woods, the words echoed back 
from the great spreading trees and set to the 
music of an hundred horses' heels. He had 
scarcely ended, when Rosecrans began to tell how 

" ' Zekle crep' up, quite unbeknown, 
An' peeped in thru the winder : 
While there sol Huldy all alone 
'Ith no one nigh to hinder.* 

"'What would you give to have written that?' 
Rosecrans said, as he finished the recitation. 

" ' All the castles I ever built in the clouds,' was 
the reply. 

" ' So would I. You know what Wolle said be- 
fore his great battle ?' 

'"That he would rather have written Gray's 
Elegy than take Quebec. Would you have said 



204 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



that belore Stone River?' 

"He hesitated a moment, and then answered: 
" * No, for now we need victories more than 
poems.' 

"We soon arrived at Sheridan's. There we 
had some relaxation. Sheridan had invented 
a game he called Dutch Ten-Pins. On the 
lawn in front of his quarters, between two im- 
mense elms, he had suspended a long rope, and to 
the end of It attached a small cannon-ball. On 
the ground, midway between these trees, was a 
square board w^hich held the ten-pins. The game 
lay In throwing the ball so that It would miss the 
pins In going out, and strike them in coming back. 
To do this a peculiar twist had to be given to the 
rope by bending the wrist, and it seemed impossi- 
ble to avoid hitting the pins on the direct throw. 
Three 'throws' were a game, and only thirty 
'strokes' could be made. Sheridan, by much 
practice, had become an expert at the play, and 
could make pretty regularly twenty 'strokes,' but 
a novice did well if he made ten. Sheridan soon 
challenged Rosecrans, Garfield, and the dozen 
officers with him to enter the lists — and the chal- 
lenger opened the play. He cleared the board 
twice, and missed it altogether the third throw. 
'Twenty,' cried the scorer, and another took his 
place. He did Indifferently well. Others fol- 
lowed with more or less success, though none 
came up to Sheridan's score. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



205 



<( ( 



Now for the general,' shouted the major, 
laughing, as Rosecrans took his place. * He'll 
score thirty, sure.' 

"'Don't laugh until jw/ win, my boy,' answered 
the general, with his peculiar smile. 

" Calculating deliberately the motion of the ball, 
he let it go. Every pin fell on the direct throw, 
and a e^neral laueh followed. Not at all dis- 
concerted, he tried again and again until he had 
played three or four games with scarcely better 
success. Amid the mock congratulations of the 
whole assemblage he at last sat down, and Gar- 
field entered the lists. *It's nothing but mathe- 
matics,' said Garfield, * you only need an eye and 
a hand,' and carelessly throwing the ball he 
cleared the board and scored twenty- three! 

"'You can't do that aorain.' 

" * I'll try,' answered the modest brigadier, and 
he did do it several times in succession." 

Another anecdote — and one that well Illustrates 
the instant correctness of Garfield's reasoning on 
subjects of the most vital and serious importance — 
and we will hurry on to Chlckamauga. Toward the 
close of May, 1863, Rosecrans received a letter, in 
which the scheme for a o-eneral uprlslno- and arm- 
ing of the blacks, followed by attacks on the 
w^hltes, in all the slave States, on the first of the 
following August, was outlined. The support of 
Rosecrans was asked for in his department, and 
he was told that a similar plan had been sent to a 



2o6 ^^^'-^ ^^^^-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Union commander In each department. Rose- 
crans deliberated over the communication and 
asked a bystander his opinion. 

" It would end the rebellion. Co-operating with 
our forces, It would certainly succeed ; but the 
South would run with blood." 

''Innocent blood ? Women and children ?" 

"Yes; women and children. If you let the 
blacks loose, they will rush Into carnage like 
horses Into a burning barn. St. Domingo will be 
multiplied by a million." 

" But the letter says that no blood Is to be shed 
except In self-defense." 

"It says so, and the leaders may mean so, but 
they cannot restrain the rabble. Every slave has 
some real or fancied wrong, and he would take 
such a time to avenge It." 

" I am puzzled. I must go and talk with Gar- 
field. Come, go with me." 

They crossed the street to Garfield's lodgings 
and found him bolstered up In bed, quite sick of a 
fever. R^secrans sat down at the foot of the bed 
and handed nmi the letter. Garfield read it over 
carefully^ and then laying It down, said : 

" It will never do, general. We don't want to 
whip by such means. If the slaves of their own 
accord rise and assert their orlcrlnal rlo^ht to them- 
selves, that will be their own affair; but we can 
have no complicity with them without outraging 
the moral sense of the civilized world." 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. ^^^ 

207 

*' I knew you would say so ; but the writer 
speaks of other department commanders. May 
they not come Into It ?" 

*' Yes, they may, and that shoukl be looked to. 

Send this letter to and let him head off the 

movement." 

The insurrection, as every one knows, did not 
take place, save In some unimportant outbreaks 
in Georgia and Alabama in the following Septem- 
ber. 



2oS ^^^'^ ^^'^'^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE BATTLK OF CIIICKAMAUGA. 



THERE now sprang up renewed differences 
between General Rosecrans and the War 
Department. In the general policy that 
controlled the movements of the army Garfield 
heartily sympathized ; he had, in fact, given shape 
to that policy. But he deplored his chiefs testy 
manner of conducting his defense to the com- 
plaints of the War Department, and did his best 
to soften the asperities of that correspondence. 

September was now nearly come, the summer 
almost gone, and the coming autumn was ripe In 
Its promise of Immediate results. The air was 
full of rumors of approaching conflicts, and the 
North waited the echo from the battle-field. 

On August 5th, General Halleck telegraphed 
Rosecrans peremptory orders to move. Rose- 
crans quietly waited till the dispositions along his 
extended lines were completed, till stores were 
accumulated and the corn had ripened, so that his 
horses could be made to live off of the country. 
On the I 5th he was ready. 

The problem now before him was to cross the 
Tennessee River and gain possession of Chatta- 
nooga, the key to the entire mountain ranges of 



y.lMES A. GARIIELD. 20Q 

East Tennessee and Northern Georgia, In the 
face of an enemy of equal strength, whose busi- 
ness it was to oppose him. Two courses were 
open. Forcing a passage over the river above 
Chattanooga, he might have essayed a direct a.t- 
tack upon the town. If not repulsed in the dan- 
gerous preliminary movements, he would still 
have had upon his hands a siege not less formid- 
able than that of Vicksburg, with difficulties in- 
comparably greater in maintaining his supplies. 
But, if this plan was not adopted, it then behooved 
him to convince the enemy that he had adopted 
it, while crossing below he hastened southward 
over the ruggedest roads, to seize the mountain 
gaps, whence he could debouch upon the enemy's 
line of supplies. More briefly, he could either 
attempt to fight the enemy out of Chattanooga or 
flank him out. He chose the latter alternative. 

By the 28th the singular activity of the National 
forces along a front of one hundred and fifty miles, 
had blinded and bewildered BraQ^o- as to his an- 
tacronist's actual intentions. Four bricrades sud- 
denly began demonstrating furiously against his 
lines above Chattanooga, and the plan was 
thought to be revealed. 

Rosecrans must be about attempting to force a 
passage there, and straightway a concentration to 
oppose hini was ordered. Meantime, bridges, se- 
cretly prepared, were hastily thrown across thirty 
miles further down the river at different points, 



2 JO ^^^^^ ^-^-^'^ run Lie CAREER CF 

and, before Bragg had finished preparing to resist 
a crosslncr above, Rosecrans, handling widi rare 
skill his various corps and divisions, had securely 
planted his army south of the Tennessee; and, 
cutting completely loose from his base of supplies, 
was already pushing southward — his flank next 
the enemy being admirably protected by impas- 
sable mountains. 

For Brao-e but one thln^-was the least feasible. 
As he had been forced out of Shelbyville, out of 
Wartrace, out of Tullahoma; precisely had the 
same stress been placed upon him by the same 
hand In a still stronger position ; and In all haste 
he evacuated Chattanoogo, leaving It to the near- 
est corps of Rosecrans's army to march quietly 
In and take possession. The very ease of this 
occupation proved its strongest element of danger 
For men, seeing the objective point In the cam- 
paign in their hands, forgot the columns toiling 
through the mountains away to the southward; 
whose presence there alone compelled the rebel 
evacuation. But for them, the isolated troops at 
Chattanooea would have been overwhelmed. 
Thenceforward there was need of still greater 
(rcneralship to reunite the scattered corps. They 
could not return by the way they had gone, for 
the moment they began such a movement Bragg, 
holding the shorter line, and already re-enforced 
by Longstreet's veteran corps of the Army of 
Northern \'irginia, could sweep back over the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 T I 

route of his late retreat. Plainly, they must pass 
through the gaps, and place themselves between 
Bragg and Chattanooga before the stronghold 
• — beyond a mere tentative possession — could be 
within their grasp. And so it came about that a 
battle — the bloody one of Chickamauga — was 
fought to enable the Federal army to concentrate 
in the position one of its corps had already occu- 
pied for days without firing a shot. 

Unfortunately, the concentration was not speedy 
enough. Indeed, there are some plausible reasons 
for believing that Rosecrans was, perhaps for a 
few days, deceived by his easy success, into a be- 
lief that Bragg was still In full retreat. Certainly 
the general-in-chief and the War Department did 
all they could to encourage such an Idea, and 
even after Rosecrans, every nerve tense with 
the struggle to concentrate his corps, was striving 
to prepare for the onset of the re-enforced rebel 
army. General Halleck informed him of reports 
that Bragg's army was re-enforcing Lee, and pleas- 
antly added, that after he had occupied Dalton It 
would be decided whether he should move still 
further southward ! 

By this time, Bragg had gathered In every 
available re-enforcement, Longstreet from the east, 
Buckner from Knoxville, Walker from the army 
of Joseph E. Johnston, militia from Georgia and., 
together waiting near Lafayette, hoped to receive 
the isolated corps of Rosecrans's army as they 



^j2 ^^^'^ ^-^'^^ FCBLIC CAREER GF 

debouched through the gaps, and annihilate them 
in detail. For a day or two, it looked as if 1::: 
would be successful. One way or another, how- 
ever, he failed. Rosecrans gathered together 
his army, repelling whatever assaults sought to 
hinder the concentration, yielding part of the line 
of the Chickamauga, and marching one of the 
corps all through the night of the battle. On 
September 19th, Bragg made his onset with cer^ 
tainly not less than seventy-five thousand men. 
Rosecrans claimed for him ninety-two thousand. 
Rosecrans had fifty-five thousand. Of the batde, 
Whitelaw Reid gives the following account : 

"Brao-o-'s plan was to turn his antagonist's left 
and thus clear the way into Chattanooga, but most 
unfortunately for Bragg, the left was held by 
Geo. H. Thomas, and shortly after the attack be- 
gan, Rosecrans, divining the danger, strength- 
ened Thomas's corps with one or two divisions. 
Disaster overtook us at first, artillery was lost and 
ground yielded, but Thomas reformed and ad- 
vanced his lines, regained all that had been lost, 
sustained every shock of the enemy, and at night 
held his position firmly. 

"Meanwhile the contest on other parts of our 
line had been less severe, and had ended decidedly 
in our advantaoe. But it was seen that we were 
outnumbered, and as they came to think how ever}' 
brigade in the Avhole army, two only excepted, had 
been drawn into the fight — the soldiers began to 
realize the dispiriting nature of the situation. 



JAMES A. GAKi JELL. ^^ ^ 

"Through the night, the last of Longstreet's 
corps came up, led by himself and Bragg, pre- 
pared for a vigorous onset on the National left. 
Rosecrans transferred another division (Negley's) 
to Thomas, and placed two more in reserve to be 
hurried to Thomas's aid if needed. At daybreak^ 
he galloped along the front to fmd McCook's line 
ill-formed, and also to learn that Negley had not 
yet been forwarded to Thomas. The errors were 
corrected as well as possible ; but long before 
Thomas's needed re-enforcements had come, the 
battle v/as rardno- on his front and flank. Pro- 
foundly conscious of the danger, Rosecrans sought 
to render still further aid, and ordered over Van 
Cleve's division from the rip-ht, dircctincr the sev- 
eral division commanders and the corps general 
to close up the line on the left, hi the heat of the 
battle, which by this time was broken out along 
the right also, one of these division commanders — 
T. J. Wood, of Kentucky — misunderstood his 
orders, and though he has subsequently stated 
that he knew the consequences of his action must 
be fatal, he chose to consider himself bound by 
the order to break the line of battle and march to 
the rear of another division. Longstreet per- 
ceived the gap and hurled Hood into it. The 
battle on the riofht was lost. The whole win'^ 
crumbled; the enemy poured forward and all that- 
was left of McCook's corps, a broken rabble, 
streamed back to Chattanooga. 



2j5 Z/7^/: AXD PUBLIC CARLF.R OF 

"General Rosecrans, himself, was caught In this 
rout and borne along, vainly striving to stem its 
tide. Finally conceiving that if the wing least 
pressed was thus destroyed, Thomas, upon whom 
he knew the main efforts of the enemy were con- 
centrated, could not hold out beyond nightfall 
he hastened to Chattanooga to make dispositions 
for the retreat and defense which he already re- 
earded as inevitable. Meanwhile, his chief of 
staff, General Garfield, was sent to Thomas, to 
convey to him Information of what had happened 
and of the plans for the future/' 

As chief of staff, It was Garfield's duty to remain 
with General Rosecrans, and It happened that the 
latter established his head-quarters for the day In 
the rear of the rio^ht wlnof and centre, leavinof to 
General George H. Thomas the duty of directing 
the fortunes of the left wing. McCook and Crit- 
tenden, It will be remembered, were commanders 
of the other two corps. Shortly after the fog, 
which for the most of the morning enveloped 
the field, and made manoeuvring almost impos- 
sible, the rebels, under Longstreet, who had 
come from Lee's Virginia army to take part in the 
great contest, made a grand assault on the right 
and centre. They w^ere just in time to take ad- 
vantage of Wood's fatal mistake, which left a gap 
In the Union line. The rebels penetrated far to 
the rear of the Federal line at this point, and turn- 
ing, drove back the right of Thomas's forces and 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 I n 

the left of the other two corps. The latter were 
eventually routed, driven across the ridge of hills 
to roads leading to Chattanooga, toward which 
they retreated in dreadful disorder and panic. In 
the tumult of defeat of the centre and right, Mc- 
Cook, Crittenden and Rosecrans, with their stafi 
officers, were driven beyond the ridge named, and 
they, too, started for Chattanooga, not knowing 
whether Thomas had been annihilated or had 
escaped. 

Garfield followed his commander about half way 
to Chattanooga. Riding up to Rosecrans, he said, 
"General, I ask permission to return and join 
General Thomas." Some slig^ht remonstrance 
was made, but Garfield persevered in his desire, 
and obtained permission. Captain William B. 
Gaw, of the engineers, upon this offered to act as 
guide, knowing the country thoroughly, and shar- 
ing the general's wish to be where there was dan- 
ger. Accompanied by Gaw and his orderly, Gar- 
held set out on his now famous ride. Striking 
through the Rossville Gap, in the mountain range, 
he rapidly pushed southward In search of General 
Thomas, the firing of whose guns. Indicating that 
the Union troops were by no means in retreat, 
could be plainly heard. The sounds borne on the 
peaceful breeze were as fire to the heels of Gar- 
field's horse, and on he dashed, his whole energy 
bent upon reaching the scene of action. For his 
was the true soldier's spirit ; his the true soldier's 
13 



220 LIFE A iVD FUB Lie CAREER OF 

creed, Napoleon's advice to his generals : " March 
in the direction of the heaviest firing." 

At the time he made this attempt the road by 
which Garfield expected to reach General Thomas 
was under cover by sharp-shooters and the ad- 
vance guards of the rebels, who were pushing 
forward to secure possession of the road, and 
thereby cut off Thomas's line of retreat. Garfield 
did not know of their presence there until admon- 
ished of It by the pattering of their too llyely bul- 
lets. Garfield's horse and that of his guide. Cap- 
tain Gaw, were shot at the first discharge, and 
Garfield's orderly was wounded, though not se- 
riously. They were compelled to abandon the 
road, and take to the fields and the mountain-side, 
where Gaw's familiarity with the topography of 
the country came into play. Intrusting himself 
implicitly to Gaw, Garfield was eventually, after 
repeated avoidance of danger, brought In safety to 
General Thomas's side. 

The "Rock of Chlckamauga" was reached just 
after the repulse of the enemy in a formidable as- 
sault all along Thomas's line, which the rebels en- 
veloped on both flanks. He found Thomas and 
his staff. General Gordon Granger, General J. B. 
Steedman, General Wood, and others, grouped in 
a hollow of the open field, a depression just suf^- 
cient to protect them from the direct rebel fire. 

Garfield at once o^ave Thomas a brief account 

o 

of the disaster to the riorht and centre. Thomas, 



J^MES A. GARFIELD. 2 2 i 

in return, stated his own intention and his situa- 
tion. The conversation, however, was not finished, 
it was cut short by a fresh rebel assault. It was 
made in great force and with great desperation, 
the rebels evidently foreseeing-, that if repulsed, 
they could not get their troops In position for yet 
another assault before the sun went down and 
darkness came to the aid of the enemy. The fire 
lasted furiously for half an hour, when the rebels 
again broke and abandoned the assault. During 
this desperate melee Garfield quietly sat on the 
ground behind a dead tree, and coolly indited a 
dispatch to General Rosecrans detailing the situa- 
tion ; and while he sat there, and during the 
heaviest of the firing, a white dove, after hovering 
around and above for several minutes, finally set- 
tled on the topmost perch of the tree above Gar- 
field's head. Here it remained during the heat of 
the fight, and when the musketry ceased, it flew 
away to the north. The attention of Garfield and 
General Wood was called to the bird. Garfield 
said nothing, ,but went on writing. Wood re- 
marked: "Good omen of peace." Garfield fin- 
ished his dispatch, sent It by an officer, and himself 
' remained on the field with General Thomas until 
the retreat was efifected the same night to Chatta- 
nooga. At seven o'clock that evening a shotted 
salute of six Napoleon guns fired Into the woods, 
after the last of the retreating assailants, under 
the personal supervison of General Gordon Gran- 



2 22 L^^^ ^^^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

ger and General Garfield, were the last shots fired 
in the batde of Chickamauga. What was left oi 
the Union army was master of the field. For the 
time the enemy evidendy regarded himself as re- 
pulsed, and Garfield said that night, and has always 
since maintained, that there was no necessity for 
an Immediate retreat on Rossville. 

This was Garfield's last military service of mo- 
ment. He wrote every order that day but one — 
that one was the fatal order to General Wood, 
which, displacing his brigade, enabled Hood to 
break through and turn the Union flank. That 
order Rosecrans wrote himself. But after Wood 
had been moved, and after Davis had been shat- 
tered and beaten back, when the whole right wing, 
mad with panic, surged back through the gaps, 
Garfield came upon the field, showing clearly that 
communication could be established between the 
reserve and Thomas, who still stood as steadfast 
as the spur of Mission Ridge, that loomed behind 
him. Through him the reserves were pushed to 
the left of Thomas, enabling him to hold Polk and 
Longstreet at bay during that long, sad afternoon 
of shock and repulse. And it should never be for- 
gotten, in Garfield's praise, that it was on his own 
earnest representations that he procured permis- 
sion — by half refusing to further retreat — to go to 
Thomas, and so back into battle. He refused to 
believe that Thomas was routed or the battle lost. 

General Wood, in his official report of Chicka- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 2^ 

mauga, said of General Garfield's action on that 
day of disaster : 

"It affords me much pleasure to signalize the 
presence with my command, for a length of time 
during the afternoon (present during the period 
of hottest fighting), of another distinguished of- 
ficer, Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief 
of the staff. After the disastrous rout on the 
right. General Garfield made his way back to the 
battle-field (showing clearly that the road was open 
to all who might choose to follow it), and came to 
where my command was engaged. The brigade 
which m-ade so determined a resistance on the 
crest of the narrow ridge during all the long Sep- 
tember afternoon, had been commanded by Gen- 
eral Garfield when he belonged to my divitsion. 
The men remarked his presence with much satis- 
faction, and were delighted that he was a witness 
of the splendid fighting they were doing. 

Rosecrans, in his official report, added his 
measure of praise 

"ToT3rigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief 
of staff, I am especially indebted for the clear and 
ready manner in which he seized the points of ac- 
tion and movement, and expressed in orders the 
ideas of the o:eneral commandine." 

o o 

On an afternoon not long afterward — the army 
was then at Chattanooga — Garfield approached his 
commander, Rosecrans, and said to him: "Gen- 
eral, I have been asked to accept the Republican 



2 26 L^P^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

nomination for Concrress from the Ashtabula dis- 
trlct. What oug;ht I to do? What is your advice? 
Ought I to accept ? Can I do so honorably ?" 

"I am glad, for your sake," returned Rosecrans, 
"that you have a new distinction, and I certainly 
tliink you can accept with honor, and, what is 
more, I deem it your duty to do so. The war is 
not over yet, nor will it be for some time to come. 
There will be, of necessity, many questions aris- 
ing in Congress which will require 'not alone 
statesmanlike treatment, but the advice of men 
having an acquaintance with military affairs. For 
this, and other reasons, I believe you vvall be able 
to do equally good service to your country in Con- 
gress as in the field. Novv^, let me give you a 
piece of advice. When you go to Congress, be 
careful what you say. Don't talk too much, but 
when you do talk speak to the point. Be true to 
yourself, and you will make your mark before the 
country." 

After a week or two further service, he was sent 
as bearer of dispatches to Washington. He there 
learned of his promotion to a major-generalship of 
volunteers *Tor ofallant and meritorious conduct at 
the battle of Chickamauofa." He mio^ht have re- 
tained this position in the army, and the mihtary 
capacity he had displayed, 'the high favor in which 
he was held by the Government, and the certainty 
of assignment to important commands seemed to 
augur a brilliant future. He was a poor man, too, 







Block-House at Chattanooga 




Head-quarters of Thomas. 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



229 



and the major-generars salary was more than 
double that of the congressman. But, on mature 
reflection, he decided that the circumstances under 
which the people had elected him to Congress, 
bound him to an effort to obey their wishes. He 
was, furthermore, urged to enter Congress by the 
officers of the army, \A\o looked to him for aid In 
procuring such military legislation as the country 
and the army required. Under the belief that the 
path of usefulness to the country lay In the direction 
in which his constituents pointed, he sacrificed what 
seemed to be his personal Interests and, on the 
5 th of December, 1863, resigned his commission, 
after nearly three years of service. 

He left the Army of the Cumberland, followed 
by the regrets and good wishes of every man in 
it — for each was his friend — and he laid down his 
unstained sword, to enter an arena where he has 
won a prouder fame, a soldier of few but shining 
laurels. A distinguished military critic thus sums 
up his soldierly achievements : 

"He proved himself a, good, independent com- 
mander In the small, but Important operations in 
the Sandy Valley. His campaign there opened 
our series of successes In the West, and, though 
fought against superior forces, began with us the 
habit of victory. After that he v/as only a subor- 
dinate. But he always enjoyed the confidence of 
his Immediate superiors and of the department. 
As chief of staff, he was unrivaled. There, as 



2^0 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

elsewhere, he was ready to accept the gravest re- 
sponsibilities In following- his convictions. The 
bent of his mind was aggressive; his judgment in 
military matters was always good; his papers on 
(the Tullahoma campaign Vv'ill stand a monument 
of his courage and his far-reaching soldierly saga- 
city; and his conduct at Chickamauga will never 
be forgHDtten by a nation of brave men." 

In follovv^ng Garfield's career upon the field 
of battle, we have steadily pursued the thread 
of the direct story, rather than turn aside to 
garner here and there a flower of incident, or to 
gather a blossom growing beside the smoking 
cannon's mouth. There were many such scat- 
tered about the path he trod with such earnest 
feet. And we may, therefore, with entire rele- 
vance and appreciable purpose, devote a page 
to the humors of conflict, as Garfield found, ab- 
sorbed and generated them. 

No man has a keener sense of justice than 
General Garfield. One day, a fugitive slave came 
rushing Into the camp, with a bloody head and ap- 
parently frightened almost to death. He had 
only passed my tent, says a staff ofificer of General 
Sherman, when, In a moment, a regular bully of a 
fellow came riding up and, with a volley of oadis> 
began to ask after his " nigger." 

General Garfield was not present, and he 
passed on to the division commander, wdio hap- 
pened to be a sympathizer with the theory that 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2-^1 

fugitives should be returned to their masters, and 
that the Union soldiers should be made instru- 
ments for returning them. He accordingly wrote 
a mandatory order to General Garfield, in whose 
..command the darkey was supposed to be hiding, 
telling him to hunt up and deliver over the prop- 
erty of the outraged citizen. 

The staff officer who brought the order stated 
the case fully to General Garfield before handing 
him the order, well knowing the general's strong 
anti-slavery views. The general took the order 
and, after reading it carefully, deliberately wrote 
on it the following indorsement: 

"I respectfully but positively decline to allow 
my command to search for, oi- deliver up any 
fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here for 
quite another purpose. The command is open 
and no obstacle will be placed in the way of die 
search.'* 

When the staff officer read the general's in- 
dorsement he was inclined to be frightened, and 
remonstrated against Garfield's determination. 
He said if he returned the order in that shape 
to the division commander he certainly would 
arrest and court-martial the writer. To this the 
Ohio general simply replied: 

"The matter may as well be tested first as last. 
Right is right, and I do not propose to mince 
matters at all. My soldiers are here for far other 
purposes than hunting and returning fugitive 
slaves." 



*>^o LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

The staff officer returned to the division 
commander and communicated Garfield's indorse- 
ment and resolve. The division commander was 
highly incensed, and at once sent for Garfield, whom 
he attempted to bull-doze into abandoning his 
position. The Ohio abolitionist was, however, not 
the man for the operation, and in return the divi- 
sion commander was obliged to listen to such a 
lecture as made him think possibly that he was in 
the wronof. At all events no court-martial w^as 
convened to try the general who had so fla- 
grantly refused to obey orders, and thereafter the 
division commander refrained from issuine orders 
on the subject of slavery. 

General Garesche, Rosecrans's chief of staff be- 
fore Garfield, was killed the first day of the 
fight at Murfreesboro. A solid shot took his head 
off "Old Rosey," ashew^as familiarly called, who 
was at Garesche's side when the fatal shot struck 
him, glanced at the headless body of his faithful 
officer and exclaimed "poor fellow! poor fellow!" 
Then he called out, "scatter, gentlemen, scatter!" 
The order was obeyed by staff and orderlies with 
more than alacrit}^ as the enemy had the staff in 
blank range of a well-manned battery and the shot 
were flying thick and fast without any respect to 
persons. "A few days after," says Thomas 
Dougherty, " I do not remember how many, when 
we had got into quarters at Murfreesboro, Gen- 
eral Gar.fiold joined us to take the dead man's 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 2 ^ cr 

place as chief of staff. The boys were dehghted and 
thought him a perfect success. As an iUustration 
of his kindness of heart, a virtue not practiced 
often by army officers in the held, they delighted to 
relate the following story as told by a sergeant in 
Rosecrans's army. 

" One night, very late, the boys were rolled in 
their blankets on the hall floor asleep, and I was 
at my post, sitting on a chair at the door of the tent 
of the creneral commandinor awaitinor orders to be 
taken to their destination by the then sleeping men. 
The light was but a tallow candle, stuck in a sar- 
dine-box. I, with chair tilted against the wall, had 
fallen asleep, when General Garfield, the new 
chief of staff, emerged from the head-quarter 
room with quick step. Not noticing my extended 
limbs, he tripped over them and dropped on his 
hands and knees on the floor. He was no li^ht 
weight, and even then the fall was not easy. Af- 
frighted, I started from my sleep, sprang to my 
feet and, as the general arose, saluted. I ex- 
pected nothing else than to be cursed, and proba- 
bly kicked and cuffed, too, from one end of the 
hall to the other. To my astonishment, the tall 
general said, kindly and quietly : * Excuse me, ser- 
geant, I did not see you.' I not only excused him, 
but with my comrades, to whom the Incident was 
related, we all learned to revere and respect the 
kindly-hearted man who had come to us as chief 
of staff." 



2^6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 



Geome O. Gardener relates a storv that is 
apropos to end our chapter: 

*' After the great and sanguinary battle of Chickamanga, I 
was bound North on a twenty days' furlough. At Louisville 
I met Generals Garfield and Steedman. Garfield was going 
to Congress, and Steedman North on business. We happened 
to go down to the ferryboat in the same 'btis, on top of which 
were Garfield's and Steedman's negro servants. It appears 
that, owing to the fact that the emancipation proclamation 
was not general, and did not at that time apply to Kentucky, 
that State's Legislature had taken advantage of it and passed 
laws regarding the kidnapping and*confiscating of every stray 
negro the gangs of civil officers and citizens could lay their 
hands upon. Officers with posses were stationed at the levees, 
instructed and authorized to seize all negroes attempting to 
cross the river on the boats, no matter where they were fron/. 
When we went on the boat we were all in ignorance of this 
State law, and of the fact that a strong force of men were on 
the boat for the purpose of seizing any unlucky darkey who 
might be going North with the Union officers. My attention 
was first called to the fact by hearing General Garfield ask a 
pompous-looking man : ' What do you want with that boy ?' 

*' I looked out of the 'bus window and noticed that the man, 
in company with others, was ordering the two boys to get 
down from the 'bus and go ashore with them. The man, who 
claimed to be the sheriff, said the boys could not go across 
the river; that he should take possession of them, etc., and 
proceeded to force them off the boat. At this, Garfield and 
Steedman jumped out of the 'bus. Garfield was mad ; he told 
these insolent men that he had been fighting rebels in the field 
for two years, that he would now do some fighting on the 
water, and that if they did not leave the boat at once they 
would get hurt. He stood between the negroes and the 
officers, and shook his fist in their faces, and dared them to 
touch the black boys who had so faithfully stood by him in 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. . ^ « 

the camp and on the battle-grounds of Stone River and 
Chickamauga. General Steedman was mad ; he pulled off 
his coat and marched into the crowd, saying he could fight 
such a white-livered set of rascals with good relish; Chicka- 
mauga had had no terrors for him, neither had kidnappers. 

''It was an exciting time for them. While Garfield and 
Steedman were getting the negroes away from the sheriff and 
his deputies, us fellows in the 'bus were getting our revolvers 
out of our valises, and we soon were out and forming a line 
of battle, one deep and far apart, in the rear of Garfield and 
Steedman. The sheriff finally exhibited a disposition to take 
the negroes at any risk. Garfield, followed by us blue-coats, 
moved on the enemy in force. They retreated ' right smart * 
to the shore. The sheriff, from his safe place on the shore, 
ordered the captain of the boat not to move the boat with the 
negroes on board. The captain then came to Garfield, and 
told him that he, the captain, could not take the boys across 
the river without incurring a heavy fine, and therefore would 
not move the boat. General Garfield said he would relieve 
him of responsibility, so he announced he would pilot the 
boat across if some one would volunteer to run the engine. 
Upon several of the soldiers agreeing to do it, the captain 
caved and ordered the boat untied, saying he would take the 
crowd across, and stop the 'tarnal fuss. The boat started and 
the row ended." 



GARFIELD AS A STATESMAN. 



:J 



Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in 
punishing or evading results. J 

Garfield's Speech on the Ninth Census, -^ 



^AMES A. GARFIELD, 



241 



CHAPTER XVII. 



HE APPEARS IN CONGRESS. 




ENERAL GARFIELD entered, on re- 
-^ signing from the army, a wider field of 
usefulness than that permitted him at the 
front. But he still remained one of the nation's 
defenders. His election to Congress was the re- 
sult of a popular idea in the Nordi during the 
summer of 1862 — that the war would end in a few 
months, or be over at least by Christmas. Be- 
lieving this, it was but rational that the people 
should take up, for the purpose of rewarding them 
with Concrressional honors, those who had won 
distinction in arms. Garfield was one of the 
number. 

The Congressional district in which he lived Is 
generally called the Ashtabula district, and has 
been more faithful to its representatives than any 
L of those of the North — having had but four In 
half a century. It now consists of the counties of 
Ashtabula, Lake, Granger, Trumbull and Mahoney. 
The County of Portage, which was a part of it 
when Garfield was first elected, was detached a 
year ago. The district is the Nineteenth, and Is 
situated in the Western Reserve — the New Eng- 
14 



:2A2 Z/Z-^- AA'£> PUBLIC CAREER OF 

land of the North-west — In North-east Ohio. It 
was originally settled by New Englanders, and Its 
population has the thrift, the keen Intelligence, the 
habits of local self-government, the political in- 
stincts, and the morals of New England. There 
is no population of equal numbers on the long 
line reachinof from New York to Chlcasfo, that 
writes so many letters and receives through the 
mails so much readinor matter. There Is less illit- 
eracy in proportion to the population, than In any 
other district In the United States. The district Is 
essentially a rural one, with the exception of some 
Iron-working portions In the southern end. It is 
the eastern portion of the Reserve. It early be- 
came deeply interested In the anti-slavery move- 
ment, and this greatly quickened the Interest of 
its people In public affairs. It Is this Intelligent 
Interest In national welfare that has made the 
district accessible to General Garfield's earnest, 
straight-forv/ard exposition of solid political doc- 
trines, to his high bearing, to the Impact of his 
mental and moral power upon Intelligent and 
honest minds, rather than by any managing or 
demaorooric measures. 

This district was the same that was lone made 
famous by Joshua R. Giddings, tlie anti-slaver}^ 
champion. Grown careless of the arts of politics 
toward the end of his career, he came to look 
upon a nomination and re-election as a matter of 
course. His over-confidence was taken advan- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

2 4 v5 

tage of by an ambitious lawyer named Hutchins, 
to carry the convention of 1858 against him. The 
friends of Giddings never forgave Hutchins, and 
cast about for a means of defeatino^ him. The 
old man, himself, was comfortably quartered in his 
consulate at Montreal, and did not care to make 
fight to get back to Congress. So, his supporters 
made use of the popularity of General Garfield, 
and nominated him while he was with his brigade. 
He had no knowledge of any such movement in 
his behalf, and when he accepted the nomination 
he did so In the belief that the war would be over 
before he would be called upon to take his seat. 
He was elected by a large majority. He con- 
tinued his military service up to the day Congress 
met. Even then he seriously thought of resign- 
ing his position as a representative, rather than his 
major-general's commission, and would have done 
so had there been any prospect of active opera- 
tions durino^ the winter months. He has often 
expressed regret that he did not fight the war to 
the end. Had he done so he would, doubtless, 
have ranked at its close amoncr the foremost of 
the victorious generals of the Republic. 

In the great arena he entered in December, 
1863, he has ever since remained — seventeen 
years. Only one member of that body antedates 
him — Judge Kelley. All this time he has been an 

« 

active participant in the events that have tran- 
spired in Congress, and he has left the imprint of 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 
244 

his ability and patriotism as thoroughly upon the 
legislation of the country as any one man now in 
public service. He certainly realizes the meaning 
of the title, " a public benefactor." We will de- 
fine that in his own words, from a speech made on 
December loth, 1878: 

'' The man who wants to serve his country must put him- 
self in the line of its leading thought, and that is the restora- 
tion of business, trade, commerce, industry, sound political 
economy, hard money and the payment of all obligations, 
and the man who can add anything in the direction of ac- 
complishing any of these purposes is a public benefactor." 

No man with the Ideals of ''Garfield could fail 
to at once take hicrh rank even in such an illustri- 
ous assemblaofe. Nor did Garfield fail to do so. 
At the outset he was recognized as a leader, and 
his Influence grew with his service. He was ap- 
pointed on the military committee, under the 
chairmanship of General Schenck, the colleague- 
ship of Farnsworth, both fresh from the field, and 
was of great service — just as Rosecrans antici- 
pated he would be — in carrying through the 
measures that served to recruit the armies during 
the closing months of the war. His activity, In- 
dustry and thorough knowledge of the wants of ^ 
the army, were of the first value in all legislation 
pertaining to military matters. He was appointed 
chairman of a select committee of seven, ap- 
pointed to Investigate the alleged frauds in the 
• money-printing bureau of the Treasury. He soon 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



245 



became known as a powerful speaker, remarkably 
ready and always effective in debate. 

His first speech of any length, on January 28th, 
1864, gave ample promise in the bud of the 
flowers of powerful oratory so soon to bloom. It 
was a reply to his Democratic colleague, Mr. 
Finck, and was in favor of the confiscation of 
rebel property. We quote from its brilliant pas- 
sao-es : 

''The war was announced by proclamation, and it must 
end by proclamation. We can hold the insurgent States in 
military subjection half a century — if need be, until they are 
purged of their poison and stand up clean before the country. 
They must come back with clean hands, if they come at all. 
I hope to see in all those States the men who fought and 
suffered for the truth, tilling the fields on which they pitched 
their tents. I hope to see them, like old Kasper of Blenheim, 
on the summer evenings, with their children upon their knees, 
and pointing out the spot where brave men fell and marbie 
commemorates it. 

*?* 5ji 51* *? ^ 3|C ^ 

''I deprecate these apparently partisan remarks ; it hurts mc 
to make them, but it hurts me more to know they are true. I 
conclude by returning once more to the resolution before 
me. Let no weak sentiments of misplaced sympathy deter us 
from inaugurating a measure which will cleanse our nation 
and make it the fit home of freedom and a glorious manhood. 
Let us not despise the severe wisdom of our Revolutionary 
fathers, when they served their generation in a similar way. 
Let the republic drive from its soil the traitors that have con- 
spired against its life, as God and His angels drove Satan and 
his host from Heaven. He was not too merciful to be just, 
and to hurl down in chains and everlasting darkness the 



?A-6 



o 



Z/FE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



r 



Uraitor angel' who 'first broke peace in Heaven,' and 
rebeled against Kim." 

Soon after he spoke In favor of the payment of 
prompt and Hberal bounties by the Federal Gov- 
ernment to encourage enUstments, and rapidly 
fearncd Congressional reputation. 

This readiness at trenchant debating proved, In 
some respects, Injurious to his rising fame. He 
spoke so readily that members were constantly 
askinof his services in behalf of favorite measures, 
and In the Impulsive eagerness of a young man 
and a young member, he often consented. He 
thus came to be too frequent a speaker, and the 
House wearied a little of his polished periods, and 
becran to think him too fond of talkinof. His su- 
perior knowledge, too, used to offend some of his 
less learned colleagues at first. They thought 
him bookish and pedantic, until they found how 
solid and useful was his store of knowledge, and 
how pertinent to the business In hand were the 
drafts he made upon It. But this In time wore off. 
His genial personal ways soon made him many 
warm friends, and reaction set In. The men of 
brains In both houses, and In the departments, 
were not loner in discoverlnof that here was a fresh, 
strong, intellectual force that was destined to 
make Its mark upon the politics of the countr)\ 
They sought his acquaintance, and before he had 
been loner In Washinfiton, he had the advantaofe 
of the best society in the capital. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^- 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE LADDER OF HONOR. 




'O the steadily-growing good opinion of his 
district, Garfield Hved out his first term. 
When the time came for holdinof the Con- 
gressional Convention of 1864, in the Nineteenth 
District, it was whispered around in the Western 
Reserve that Garfield had written the Wade- Davis 
manifesto against President Lincoln, or, at least 
w^as in sympathy with it. The convention was 
eager to nominate him, but it was objected, and 
the objection seemed to have some force with the 
delegates, that he had not condemned the mani- 
festo. He w^as called upon to explain himself, and 
the way he did so will never be forgotten. En- 
tering the convention . hall, he walked up to the 
platform, planted himself firmly on it, and began a 
speech that he must have thought would dig his 
political grave. He spoke only for half an hour, 
and he told his hearers he had not written the 
Wade-Davis letter, but he had only one regret 
connected with it, and that was that there was a 
necessity for its appearance. He approved the 
letter, defended the motives of the authors, asserted 
his right to independence of thought and action, 
and told the delegates that if they did not want a 



248 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



free agent for their representative, they had better 
find another man, for he did not desire to serve 
them lonorer. 

As he warmed up to his subject he captivated 
\the convention with his plain, hard reasoning and 
his glowing eloquence. When he had finished 
speaking, he left the platform and strode out of 
the hall. As he reached the front of the stairs, on 
his way out of the building, he heard a great 
noise, which he imao-ined was the sicrnal of his 
unanimous rejection. On the contrary, it was 
the applause that followed his nomination by 
acclamation. His very boldness had stunned 
the convention, expecting, as It did, something 
entirely different from the party leader. It was 
some seconds before anything was said, but 
finally an Ashtabula delegate got on his feet, and 
said : " By , the man who can face a conven- 
tion like that, ought to be nominated by acclama- 
tion." It didn't take the convention lone to find 
out that It entertained a similar admiration for his 
independence and pluck, and the result was as 
related, before his opponents In the convention 
had time to open their mouths. 

Governor Todd closed the meetinor with the re- 

o 

mark : *'A district that will allow a young fellow 
like Garfield to tweak Its nose and cuff its ears In 
that manner, deserves to have him saddled on it 
for life." 

General Garfield, speaking of this Incident, said 
he knew It was a bold action for a youngster, but 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 240 

he believed both Mr. Wade and Mr. Davis to be 
right, and he determined to stand by them. ''This 
showed me, completely, the truth of the old 
maxim, that ' Honesty is the best policy,' and I 
have ever since been entirely independent in my 
relations with the people of my district." 

The news of his action spread far and wide. A 
day or two aftervv^ard he met Ben Wade, who 
seized him by the hand, and roared out: 

" Look here, do you know you did a d brave 

thing at that convention the other day ?" 

" It was my duty, Mr. Wade, to say what I did, 
as I believed you and Mr. Davis to be In the 
right," replied Garfield. 

" Bosh," cried old Ben, " I say it w^as d d 

brave. Why, not one fellow In a dozen but w^ould 
have given Davis and I the go-by. All you had 
to do was to go In and teter a little before the con- 
vention, and they would have promised In advance 
to re-nominate you. But you didn't do It ; devil the 
bit did you do It. You took the bull by the horns 
like a man, and told the convention it was wrong, 

and I say It was d d brave In you to do so. 

Now, mind you, Garfield, you have got that 
district, and they w^on't fool w-ith you any more. 
The people of Ohio like a bold and honest man, 
and they have found one In you, and they ain't 
going to give you up soon. Just you go ahead, 
they know you are worth a dozen limber-jacks, 
and they will stick by you. It's a clear case you 



2 CO LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



J 



won't turn for anybody — you had the best chance 
to turn the other day before that convention }'Ou 

will ever have, and you didn't do it — no d if 

you did. The people hate a trimmer, and I tell , 
you your action at that convention has given the '' 
men and women of your district a new idea of you. 
As for me," added old Ben, the tears starting to ' 
his eyes, " I won't say how much I am obliged to ] 
you for the v/ay you stood by me, but I shall 
never forget it, never, sir, while I live on this 
earth." Then the old war-horse went abruptly 
away, and the young statesman kne^v^ he had made 
a friend for life of the oldest and best statesman 
Ohio ever had. 

When the election came off he was returned by 
a majority of twelve thousand. 

On his return to Congress on the opening of 
his second term, having proved himself such an 1 
invaluable worker, and having risen to such in- 
fluence in the handling of financial questions, that 
the Secretary of the Treasury requested he be 
appointed on the Committee of Ways and Means,"*^ 
the leadinof committee of the House. This was 
much more in the line of his tastes and studies. 
His work during this term was earnest, thorough 
and incessant, and he steadily gained in the estima- 
tion of his colleagues. He delivered a noted speech 
on the "Constitutional Amendment to Abolish 



* The committee which matures the financial legislation of Congress and provides 
the means of raising the revenue. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 - i 

Slavery," and from the Committee on Military Af- 
fairs, on which he had been appointed, made a 
reoort on the discharofe of soldiers who enlisted 
to fill old reo^iments. 

He made noted speeches also on the^Freedman's 
Bureau " and the " Restoration of the Rebel States," 
on the "Public Debt and Specie Payments," and on 
''the National Bureau of Education." On March 
6th of this year ((66) he argued the L. P. Milligan 
conspiracy case against the Government, ap- 
pealed to the Supreme Court from the courts of 
Indiana. Ben. Butler, Hon. James Speed, Hon. 
Henry Stanberry appeared for the United States, 
and with Mr. Garfield for the petitioners were the 
Hon. J. A. McDonald, Hon. J. S. Black and Hon. 
David Dudley Field. Mr. Garfield's argument 
was most elaborate and bristled with precedents 
and telling points. Its peroration was as follows: 

''It is in your power, O Judges! to erect in this citadel of 
our liberties a monument more lasting than brass; invisible 
indeed to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye of the spirit, 
as the awful form and figure of justice, crowning and adorning 
the Republic ; rising above the storms of political strife, 
above the din of battle, above the earthquake shock of rebel- 
lion ; seen from afar and hailed as protector by the oppressed 
of all nations; dispensing equal blessings, and covering with 
the protecting shield of law the weakest, the humblest, the mean- 
est, and, until declared by solemn law unworthy of protection, 
the guiltiest of its citizens." 

When the nominating convention met again in 



2^2 ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the late summer of 1866, some few of his constiU- 
ents, Hving in the Mahoning Valley, an iron prr\« 
ducing district, opposed his re-nomination on tho, 
ground that he did not favor as high a tariff on 
iron as they wanted. The convention, however 
was overwhelmingly on his side, not a single anti- 
Garfield delegate securing a seat, and in after 
years he succeeded in convincing these opponents 
that a moderate duty, affording a sufficient margin 
for protection, was better for their interests than 
a high prohibitory rate. During his third term 
he was chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs, being placed at the head of this com- 
mittee in 1867. In this committee he had plenty 
of work to do looking after the demands of the 
discharged soldiers for pay and bounty, of which 
many had been deprived by red-tape decisions of 
the Government accounting officers. It was 
during this term that everything seemed drifting 
toward greenbacks and repudiation. He took a 
bold stand, as his views were opposed to those of 
many leading men of his party, and to the declara- 
tions of the Republican State Committee of Ohio* 
he indeed seemed to hazard his re-nomination, but 
he did not hesitate firmly and fully to avow his con- 
victions. His financial doctrines were at length 
adopted by the entire party, and fully indorsed in 
the Chicago Republican platform. 

These two years are marked by speeches on "Re- 
construction," "the Currency," "Taxation of United 



JAMES A. GARFTELD, 



^"SZ 



States Bonds," an address on "College Education," 

^une izjth, 1867,) at Hiram, Ohio, before the liter- 

ry societies of the Eclectic Institute, and a Deco- 

//ation Day address at Arlington, Va., May 30th, 

1868. 

He was opposed in the nominating convention 
of 1868, by Darius Cadwell, of Ashtabula County, 
who secured forty votes chiefly from his own 
county, and had the pleasure of seeing his oppo- 
nent elected by one of his overwhelming majori- 
ties. When he reached Congress he was 
appointed chairman of the Committee on Banking 
and Currency, and during this Congress, beside 
work on this committee, he did most of the hard 
work on the Ninth Census. His work is this ses- 
sion is noted for a most elaborate, painstaking 
report on remodeling the army and investigation 
into the causes of Black Friday. This report, 
which is far too long to print here, is a fascinating 
story for any reader, possessing little of the saw- 
dust filling common to "Pub. Docs." April ist, 
1870, he made a speech on the tariff. 

This year there was no opposition either in the 

convention or the field, and Garfield returned to 

\\ the capital for his fifth two years. In 1 871, he 

'■ was promoted to the chairmanship of the Commit- 

., tee on Appropriations, as successor to Henry L. 

Dawes, which he held until the Democrats got 

control of the House, in 1875. He made speeches 

on the "McGarrahan Claim," the "Right to Orig- 



254 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



inate Revenue Bills," "Enforcing the Fourteenth 
Amendment," "National Aid to Education." He 
delivered, on November 25th, 1871, an elaborate 
eulogy on General George H. Thomas, and Feb- 
ruary 9th, 1872, argued the Henderson case be- 
fore the Supreme Court. 

In 1872, a few blank ballots were cast in the 
nominating convention, and a liberal Republican 
was taken up by the opposition at the election, but 
Garfield received his old-time majority and re- 
turned again to Washington. He delivered, on 
July 2d, 1873, an oration to the students of Hud- 
son College, on "The Future of the Republic." 
In October, the same year, he was in the Supreme 
Court, in the Rogers case, and contributed some 
papers to the Western Reserve and Northern 
Ohio Historical Society. 

The year 1874 w^as the year of the Democratic 
tidal wave, the Credit Mobilier and the salary 
grab having alienated many of the Republican 
thousands. Nowhere did these two affairs make 
a deeper Impression than in the sensitive and jeal- 
ous constituency represented by Mr. Garfield. 
Mr. Whittlesey and Mr. Giddings, who had pre- 
ceded Mr. Garfield, were men of unsullied repu- 
tation. The faintest semblance to anything like a 
wrong or improper course of conduct was enough 
to draw forth the honest, plain-spoken Indignation 
of men who were not ready to justify the slightest 
departure from the line of right. General Gar- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 255 



field had now represented the district in five suc- 
cessive Congresses, and, though not so well known 
as he is to-day, his name had crossed the conti- 
nent to the West and the ocean to the East. The 
district felt very proud of him. No representative 
held his constituency with a firmer hand. His 
tenure promised to be as long as that of Whittle- 
sey or Giddings. But now all was changed. A 
Republican convention, that met in Warren for 
some local purpose, demanded his resignation. 
Most men denounced, all regretted, none defended ' 
what had been done. All that the staunchest 
friends of General Garfield presumed to do was 
to say: "Wait until you hear the case; Aear what 
Garfield has to say before you determine that he 
is a dishonest man." Garfield wrote from Wash- 
ino-ton to a friend: "The district is lost, and as 
soon as I can close up my affairs here I am coming 
homie to capture it." 

And he did capture it. He issued his pamph- 
lets, " Review of the Transactions of the Credit 
Mobilier Company " and " Increase of Salaries " 
from Washington, and then came on to Hiram. 
These pamphlets, with a personal speech in War- 
ren som.ewhat later, constituted his direct defense. 
When the next campaign opened, he west, as 
usual, upon the stump. He rarely referred to 
the charcres against him, and never did unless 
compelled to. He grappled with the questions of 
the day. He went from county to county, and 



2r5 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

almost from village to village. His knowledge 
was so great, his argumentation so logical, his 
spirit so earnest, and his bearing, both public and 
private, so manly, that men began to ask : " Can 
it be true that Mr. Garfield is such a man as they 
tell us ?" Prejudice was slowly but surely over- 
come, and at the polls the people's belief w^as thus 
expressed: Garfield, 12,591; Regular Democratic 
ticket, 6,245 ; Independent Republican ticket, 
3,427. His antagonist this time was a Republi- 
can, named Casement, who Is to-day one of the 
general's best friends. During all the storm of 
abuse that darkened this year, the sunshine of the 
future was predicted. A sonnet appeared in the 
Washington Evening Star, in the winter of '74: 

"TO JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

** Thou who didst ride on Chickamauga's day, 
All solitary, down the fiery line, 
And saw the ranks of battle rusty shine, 
Where grand old Thomas held them from dismay, 
Regret not now, while meaner factions play 
Their brief campaigns against the best of men ; 
For those spent balls of slander have their way. 
And thou shalt see the victory again. 
Weary and ragged, though the broken lines 
Of party reel, and thine own honor bleeds, 
That mole is blind that Garfield undermines ! 
That shot falls short that hired slander speeds I 
That man will live whose place the State assigns, 
And whose high mind the mighty nation needs I" 

In 1S76, he was again re-elected. He served 
in this term as a member of the Committee on 
Rules, in recognition of his rare knowledge of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2^1 

parliamentary law. In 1877, Mr. Blaine took his 
seat in the Senate, and the mantle of Republican 
leadership in the House, by common consent, de- 
scended to Mr. Garfield ; a mantle which he has 
worn with honor ever since. He was, at the 
opening of this Congress, the RepubHcan candi- 
date for the speakership, but the Democrats were 
largely in the majority, and Mr. Randall was 
elected over him. In this same year, upon the 
appointment of Senator Sherman to the post of 
Secretary of the Treasury, his own inclinations 
and the support of his friends in Ohio led him to 
aspire to the vacant Senatorial chair. The repre- 
sentations of President Hayes are understood to 
have been effective in preventing him from be- 
coming a candidate for that place, on the ground 
that his services were more needed as Speaker of 
the House of Representatives, and Mr. Stanley 
Matthews was elected Senator. When the House 
was organized, however, the Speakership was car- 
ried off by the Democracy, and General Garfield 
was left "out in the cold." It was just as well for 
him, for two years later the Democracy also car- 
ried Ohio and elected " Gentleman George " Pen- 
dleton to Matthews's seat In the Senate. 

In 1878, he was re-elected by ^ majority of 
9,613. Opposition was now no more. Men who 
had been most denunciatory was now warmest in 
his praise ; and it was actually left to the friends 
who had stood by him through all the storm to 
15 



I- 



258 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



supply such criticism as every public man needs to 
keep him in proper tone. 

As it was in the district, so it was in the State. 
In a sense, in 1873, he had come to be the repre- 
sentative of Ohio. He passed though a State as 
well as a district ordeal, and came out approved. 
What then was more natural than that when the 
last election gave the Ohio Legislature to the Re- 
publicans, and the party looked around for a suc- 
cessor to Allen G. Thurman on the 4th of March 
next, Mr. Garfield should be the man. He had 
received the complimentary vote of the Republican 
members In the caucus two years before — 1878 — 
and after a protracted and bitter contest in that 
caucus, his name was withdrawn, and It was re- 
solved to cast only blank votes in the two houses. 
This time ex-Senator Stanley Matthews, ex-At- 
torney-General Alphonso Taft and ex-Governor 
William Denlson had also entered Into a canvass 
for the place, but by the time the caucus met the 
general sentiment of the State was so earnest and 
enthusiastic In favor of Garfield, that his three com- 
petitors withdrew without waiting for a ballot, and 
he was nominated unanimously by a rising vote, an 
honor never accorded to any other man of any 
party in the State of Ohio. He was elected by a 
majority of 22 In the Assembly and a majority of 
7 in the Senate. 

It will be apropos to go back a bit here to relate a 
litde incident. Soon after A. G. Thurman's elec- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 359 

tion and Ben Wade's retirement from the Senate, 
It was proposed by his friends in Ohio that the 
"Old War Horse" should be sent to the House. 
Wade lived in Garfield's district, and as soon as 
the general heard of the proposition to send Wade 
to the House, he cordially indorsed it, saying: 
"The nation can better afford to spare me from its 
councils than it can to spare Ben Wade — let him 
be sent to the House in my place." 

When Wade heard of what was on foot, he 
said : " Now, put a stop to it, and at once. What 
a devil of an idea ! sending me to the House, as if 
I were an essential to its existence ! Why, I 
wouldn't go if I was unanimously nominated and 
elected. You have a good representative in Gar- 
field, and I advise you to stick to him. I am old, 
and had better be getting ready to die than think- 
ing of office. I have had enough of public office, 
and only wish to be let alone now. Garfield is 
young, faithful and able ; send him back, and keep 
him there — stick to him. I tell you, there is no 
telling how high that fellow may go." 

At Columbus, on January 14th, 1880, he ac- 
knowledged his election as United States Senator 
in one of his admirable speeches. He said : 

" Fellow-citizens : — I should be a great deal more than a man, or a 
great deal less than a man, if I were not extremely gratified by this mark 
of your kindness you have shown me in recent days. I did not oxpect any 
such a meeting as this. I knew there was a greeting awaitmg me, but I 
did not expect so cordial, generous and general a greeting, without distinc- 
tion of party, without distinction of int&rests, as I have received here to- 
night. 

"I recogoiize the importance of the place to which you have elected me| 



55o ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

and I should be base if I did not also recognize the great man wliom you 
have elected me to succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger- 
minded, broader-minded men in the record of her history than that of Allen 
G. Thumian. Differing widely from him, as I have done in politics and 
do, I recognize him as a man high in character and great in intellect ; and 
I take this occasion to refer to what I have never before referred to in 
public — that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, when the air 
was filled with all sorts of missiles aimed at the character and reputation of 
public men, when it was even for his party interest to join the general 
clamor against me and my associates. Senator Thurman said in public, in 
the campaign, on the stump — when men are as likely to say unkind things 
as at any place in the Avorld — a most generous and earnest word of defense 
and kindness for me, which I shall never forget so long as I live. I say, 
moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden-wall of party politics, 
are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of tliis world, 
and, where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy their fragrance, it is manly 
and delightful to do so. 

"And now, gentlemen of the general assembly, without distinction of 
party, I recognize this tribute and compliment made to me to-night, \\niat- 
ever my own course may be in the future, a large share of the inspiration of 
my future public life will be drawn from this occasion and these surround- 
ings, and I shall feel anew the sense of obligation that I feel to the State of 
Ohio." 

June loth, 1880, he was nominated at Chicago 
for the presidency, and on July 6th he was elected 
a trustee of Williams College. 

We have not in this chapter given anything 
more than a skeleton outline of his career, upon 
which to hanof the fuller flesh of the succeeding 
pages, believing this arrangement will prove 
more acrreeable to the reader than followinir 
General Garfield step by step ; but we will in- 
elude here two letters to Mr. Hinsdale, that fur- 
nish a chance glimpse at the life of this man. 
The first Is dated Washington, December nth, 
1865: 

*' We have begun, as you have seen, and currents are beginning to develop 
their direction and strength only feebly as yet. We aijpcar to have a very 
robust House, and indications thus far show it to be a ver)' sound one. 
The message is much belter than wo expected, and I have hoped that we 
»hall be able to work with the President. He sent for me day before yes- 



\ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 26l 

terday, and we had a free conversation. I gave him the views of the earnest 
men North as I understand them, and we tried to look over the whole field 
of the difficulties before us. 

"They are indeed many and formidable. Sumner and Boutwell and 
some more of that class are full of alarm ; less, however, than when they 
first came. Some foolish men among us are all the while bristling up for 
fight, and seem to be anxious to make a rupture with Johnson. I think we 
should assume that he is with us, treat him kindly, without suspicion, and 
go on in a firm, calmly considered course, leaving him to make the breach • 
with the party if any is made. I doubt if he would do it under such cir- 
cumstances. The caucus resolution of Thad. Stevens was bad in some of 
its features. It was rushed through before the caucus was fully assembled, 
and, while it expresses the sentiment of the House in its main propo- 
sitions, there are some points designed to antagonize with the President, 
It still lies over in the Senate, where it will be modified, if it passes 
at all." 

The second is likewise from Washington, but 
written two years later : 

^ " Washington, D. C, jtmuary ist, 1867. 

«* I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I have 
been for a long time. I find that many of the points and doctrines, both in 
general politics and finance, which I believe in and desire to see prevail, are 
meeting with more opposition than heretofore, and are in imminent danger 
of being overborne by popular clamor and political passion. In reference 
to reconstruction, I feel that if the Southern States should adopt the Con- 
stitutional Amendments within a reasonable time, we are literally bound to 
admit them to representation ; if they reject it, then I am in favor of strik- 
ing for impartial suffrage, though I see that such a course is beset with grave 
dangers. Now Congress seems determined to rush forward without waiting 
even for the action of the Southern States, thus giving the South the impres- 
sion, and our political enemies at home a pretext for saying, that we were 
not in good faith when we offered the Constitutional Amendments. * * * 
Really, there seems to be a fear on the part of many of our friends that 
they may do some absurdly extravagant thing to prove their radicalism.^ I 
am trj'ing to do two things : dare to be a radical and not be a fool, which, 
if I may judge by the exhibitions around me, is a matter of no small diffi- 
culty. I wish the South would adopt the Constitutional Amendments soon 
and in good temper. Perhaps they will. * * * Next, the Supreme 
Court has decided the case I argued last winter, and the papers are insanely 
calling for the abolition of the court. * * * In reference to finance, I 
believe that the great remedy for our ills is an early return to specie pay- 
ments, which can only be effected by the contraction of our paper cuiTency. 
There is a huge clamor against both and in favor of expansion. You know 
my views on the tariff. I am equally assaulted by the free-traders and by 
the extreme tariff men. There is passion enough in the country to run a 
steam-engine in every village, and a spirit of proscription which keeps pace 
with the passion. My oyra course is chosen, and it is quite probable it will 
throw me out of public life." 



262 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XIX. 



AN ORNAMENT OF CONGRESS. 



GENERAL GARFIELD'S career In Con^ 
gress was essentially one of work. The 
number of his speeches, reports, reso- 
lutions, debates, etc., is high In the hundreds. 
What he was as an orator we shall see later. As 
a debater he has had few equals. Producing al- 
ways an overwhelming array of facts, he has ever 
been a 

To\Ter of strength, 
Which stands four square to all the winds that blow ! 

He was thorough In committee work, assiduous 
in private study of pending questions and an able 
debater, by no means a common comblnadon of 
qualldes. He Interested himself In many subjects 
of great Importance to the public, in which your 
common conorressman has small interest; in the 
census, In education, In the scientific surveys. In 
the llfe-savlncr service, and In many more. As the 
Republican leader In the House, he has been more 
conservative and less rash than Blaine, and 
his judicial turn of mind made him prone to look 
for both sides of a quesdon, and always relieved 
him of the charge of partisanship. When the 



yAMES A. GARFIELD. 26"^ 

issue fairly touched his convictions, however, he 
became thoroughly aroused and struck tremen- 
dous blows. Blaine's tactics were to continually 
harass the enemy by sharp-shooting, surprises and 
picket-firing. Garfield waited always for an op- 
portunity to deliver a pitched battle, and his gen- 
eralship was shown to best advantage when the 
fight was a fair one, and waged on grounds where 
each party thought itself the strongest. Then his 
solid shot of argument was exceedingly effective. 
He has always taken a genuine pride in the histor- 
ical achievements of the Republican party, with 
which he has been identified from its birth. He 
has a traditional leaninof toward all measures for 
the advantage of the freedmen or the curtailing the 
influence of the party which he holds to have been 
responsible for the rebelHon. Nevertheless, he is 
by no means deficient in generous impulses toward 
the South, and has more than once exerted his in- 
fluence to prevent the passage of rash partisan 
legislation aeainst the interests of that section. The 

o o 

" Confederate bricradiers " In Conorress have found 

o o 

him a determined and loyal adversary, but he has 
never stooped to take unfair advantage of the nu- 
merical preponderance of his party. As leader of 
the Republican minority In the present House of 
Representatives he has known how to reconcile 
the party fealty with a concilatory disposition 
toward the party in power, and has not been un- 
duly obstructive of any legislation which did not, 



264 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



in his opinion, transcend the fair hmits of party 
predominance. He is in all things a calm, cour- 
teous, determined leader of men — 



-rich in saving common sense, 



And, as the wisest only are, 
In his simplicity sublime. 

He is not a practical politician and knows little 
of the machinery of caucuses and conventions or 
the methods of conducting close campaigns. As 
a politician in the larger and better sense of 
shaping the policy of a great party, however, he 
has few equals. To no man is the Republican 
party more indebted for its successes in recent 
years than to James A. Garfield. 

With the single exception of 1867, when he 
spent several weeks in Europe, partly in com- 
pany with Senator Blaine and Senator Morrill, he 
did hard work on the stump for the Republican 
party In every campaign since he entered Con- 
gress. On the stump, he is one of the best ora- 
tors In his party. He has a good voice, an air of 
evident sincerity, great clearness and vigor of 
statement, and a way of knitting his arguments 
together, so as to make a speech deepen Its im- 
pression on the mind of the hearer, until the cli- 
max clinches the arcrument forever. For the 

o 

past ten years, his services have been in demand 
in all parts of the country. He has usually re- 
served half his time for the Ohio canvass, and 
given the other half to other States. The No- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 265 

vember election finds him worn and haggard with 
travel and speaking in the open air, but his robust 
constitution always carries him through, and after 
a few weeks' rest on his farm he appears in 
Washington refreshed and ready for the duties of 
the session. 

A mind so prone as his to look philosophically 
into his surroundings could not fail to have studied 
into the history and functions of the body of 
which he made such an illustrious member, and it 
will be fittine to follow a criticism of him as a 
member of that body, with his own remarks upon 
it. In July, 1877, he contributed to xkvo. Atlantic 
Monthly 2.n article, entided "A Century in Con- 
gress," from which we extract his views of the 
same : 

" Congress has always been and must always be the theatre 
of contending opinions, the forum where the opposing forces 
of political philosophy meet to measure their strength ; where 
the public good must meet the assaults of local and sectional 
interests, in a word, the appointed place where the nation 
seeks to utter its thoughts and register its will. 

I ''In the main, the balance of power so admirably adjusted 
and distributed among the three great departments of the 
Government has been safely preserved. It was the purpose 

II ' of our fathers to lodge absolute power nowhere; to leave each 

department independent within its own sphere; yet, in every 
case, responsible for the exercise of its discretion. But some 
dangerous innovations have been made. And first, the ap- 
pointing power of the President has been seriously encroached 

J upon by Congress, or rather by the members of Congress. 

I Curiously enough, this encroachment originated in the act of 



2^G IIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

the chief executive himself. The fierce popular hatred of the 
'Federal party, which resulted in the elevation of Jefferson to 
the presidency, led that officer to set the first example of re- 
moving men from office on account of political opinions. 
For political causes alone, he removed a considerable number 
of officers who had recently been appointed by President 
Adams, and thus set the pernicious example. His immediate 
successors made only a few removals for political reasons. 
But Jackson made his political opponents, who were in office, 
feel the full weight of his executive hand. From that timej 
forward, the civil officers of the Government became the 
prizes for which political parties strove ; and twenty-five years' 
ago, the corrupting doctrine that * to the victors belong the 
spoils' was shamelessly announced as an article of political 
faith and practice. It is hardly possible to state with ade- 
quate force the noxious influence of this doctrine. * * * 
The present system invades the independence of the ex- 
ecutive, and make him less responsible for the character ofj 
his appointments; it impairs the efficiency of the legislator,] 
by diverting him from his proper sphere of duty, and involv- 
ing him in the intrigues of aspirants for office ; it degrades 
the civil service itself, by destroying the personal independ- 
ence of those who are appointed ; it repels from the service] 
those high and manly qualities Avhich are so necessary to 
pure and efficient administration ; and, finally, it debauches 
the public mind by holding up public office as the reward ol 
m.ere party zeal. To reform this service is one of the highest! 
and most imperative duties of statesmanship. This reformj 
cannot be accomplished without a complete divorce between] 
Congress and the Executive in the matter of appointments 
It will be a proud day when an administrator, senator or re-j 
presentative, who is in good standing in his party, can say 
Thomas Hughes said, during his recent visit to this country,] 
that though he was on the "most intimate terms with the mem- 
bers of his administration, yet it was not in his power to se- 
cure the removal of the humblest clerk in the civil service of 
his government." 



yAMES A, GARFIELl), ^Sj 

**I have long believed that the official relations between 
the Executive and Congress should be more open and direct. 
They are now conducted by correspondence with the pre- 
siding officers of the two Houses, by consultation with com- 
mittees, or by private interviews with individual members. 
This frequently leads to misunderstandings, and may lead to 
corrupt combinations. It would be far better for both de- 
partments if the members of the cabinet were permitted to sit 
in Congress and participate in the debates on measures re- 
lating to their several departments — but, of course, without a 
vote. This would tend to secure the ablest men for the chief 
executive offices, it would bring the policy of the administra- 
tion into the fullest publicity by giving both parties ample 
opportunity for criticism and defense. 

** The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact that 
so many citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but 
little attention to the sources of political power, to the selec- 
,tion of those who shall make their laws. The clergy, the 
faculties of colleges, and many of the leading business men of 
the community never attend the township caucus, the city 
primaries or the county conventions ; but they allow the less 
intelligent and the more selfish and corrupt members of the 
community to make the slates and * run the machine ' of poli- 
tics. They wait until the machine has done its work, and 
then, in surprise and horror at the ignorance and corruption 
in public, sigh for the return of that mythical period called 
the ' better and purer days of the Republic. ' It is precisely 
this neglect of the first steps in our political processes that has 
.made possible the worst evils of our system. Corrupt and in- 
competent presidents, judges and legislators can be removed, 
but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, when 
voters themselves become venal and elections fraudulent, there 
is no remedy except by awakening the public conscience and 
bringing to bear upon the subject the power of public opinion 
and the penalties of the law. The practice of buying and 
selling votes at our popular elections has already gained a foot- 



2^o LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

hold, though it has not gone as far as in England. In a 
word, our national safety demands that the fountains of politi- 
cal power shall be made pure by intelligence, and kept pure 
by vigilance: that the best citizen shall take heed to the 
selection and election of the worthiest and most intelligent 
among them to hold seats in the national legislature ; and 
that when the choice has been made, the continuance of their 
representatives shall depend upon his faithfulness, his ability 
and his willingness to work." 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER XX. 

I 

I THE orator's power, 

WE must now Invite the reader's attention 
to Garfield as he appears in his 
speeches, and if we cannot follow him 
as fully as we would like — to show his rare orator- 
ical power and splendid statesmanship, to develop 
in his own words what he is — it is because space 
forbids. His speeches alone make volumes and 

j|. we can only cull here and there a flower from the 
thickly blossoming fields. 

i It was impossible for a man so large hearted, so 
patriotic as Garfield is not to have felt deeply the 
death of Abraham Lincoln. He saw that it was 
not the hand of one man but the spirit of seces- 
sion aiming a last despairing blow at the great 
principles that had conquered it. Naturally then 
his was the tongue to give some expression to the 

i nation's grief. And in the exciting hours that 
followed Booth's cowardly pistol shot, when the 
whole North was roused with a whirlwind of mad 
passion, Garfield's hand was apparent in staying 
the impending storm, in counseling that course 
that led to the wiser way, the better plan. 

In the incident we are about to relate the extra- 
ordinary moral power always exerted over men by 

W 



2^0, LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the nominee for the Presidency, was perhaps 
never shown to a better advantage. The incident 
is contributed to this volume by a distinguished 
pubHc man, who was an eye-witness of the ex- 
citing scene ; 

*< I shall never forget the first time I saw General Garfield. 
It was the morning after President Lincoln's assassination. 
The country was excited to its utmost tension, and New York 
city seemed ready for the scenes of the French revolution. 
The intelligence of Lincoln's murder had been flashed by the'^ 
wires over the whole land. The newspaper head-lines of the 
transaction were set up in the largest type, and the high crime, 
was on every one's tongue. Fear took possession of men'sj 
minds as to the fate of the Government, for in a few hoursj 
the news came on that Seward's throat was cut, and that at- 
tempts had been made upon the lives of others of the Govern-j 
ment officers. Posters were stuck up everywhere, in great j 
black letters, calling upon the loyal citizens of New York, 
Brooklyn, Jersey City and neighboring places to meet aroundi 
the Wall-Street Exchange and give expression to their senti- 
ments. It was a dark and terrible hour. What might comej 
next no one could tell, and men spoke with bated breath. 
The wrath of the workingmen was simply uncontrollable, andj 
revolvers and knives were in the hands of thousands of Lin- 
coln's friends, ready, at the first opportunity, to take the law] 
into their own hands, and avenge the death of ^heir martyred] 
President upon any and all who dared to utter a word against 
him. Eleven o'clock A. M. was the hour set for the rendez-| 
vous. Fifty thousand people crowded around the Exchange] 
Building, cramming and jamming the streets, and wedged in] 
tight as men could stand together. With a few to whom 
special favor was extended, I went over from Brooklyn atj 
nine A. M., and, even then, with the utmost difficulty, 
found my way to the reception room for the speakers in the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 271 

front of the Exchange Building, and looking out on the 
high and massive balcony, whose front was protected by a 
heavy iron railing. We sat in solemnity and silence, waiting 
for General Butler, who, it was announced, had started from 
Washington, and was either already in the city or expected 
every moment Nearly a hundred generals, judges, states- 
men, lawyers, editors, clergymen and others were in that 
room waiting Butler's arrival. We stepped out to the balcony 
to watch the fearfully solemn and swaying mass of people. 
Not a hurrah was heard, but for the most part a dead silence, 
or a deep, ominous muttering ran like a rising wave up the 
street toward Broadway, and again down toward the river on 
the right. At length the batons of the police were seen 
swinging in the air, far up on the left, parting the crowd and 
pressing it back to make way for a carriage that moved 
slowly, and with difficult jogs, through the compact multi- 
tude. Suddenly the silence was broken, and the cry of 
'Butler!' 'Butler!' 'Butler!' rang out with tremendous and 
thrilling effect, and was taken up by the people.' But not a 
hurrah ! Not once ! It was the cry of a great people, asking 
to know how their President died. The blood bounced in 
our veins, and the tears ran like streams down our faces. 
How it was done I forget, but Butler was pulled through and 
pulled up, and entered the room, where we had just walked 
back to meet him. A broad crape, a yard long, hung from 
his left arm — terrible contrast with the countless flags that 
were waving the nation's victory in the breeze. We first 
realized, then, the truth of the sad news that Lincoln was 
dead. When Butler entered the room we shook hands. 
Some spoke, some could not ; all were in tears. The only 
word Butler had for us all, at the first break of the silence, 
was, ' Gentlemen, he died in the fullness of his fame /' and as 
he spoke it his lips quivered and the tears ran fast down his 
cheeks. Then, after a few moments, came the speaking. 
And you can imagine the effect, as the crape fluttered in the 
wind, while his arm was uplifted. Dickinson, of New York 



2^2 Z//"^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

State, was fairly wild. The old man leaped over the iron 
railing of the balcony and stood on the very edge, overhang- 
ing the crowd, gesticulating in the most vehement manner, 
and almost bidding the crowd 'burn up the rebel, seed, 
root and branch,' while a bystander held on to his coat-tails 
to keep him from falling over. By this time the wave of 
popular indignation had swelled to its crest. Two men lay 
bleeding on one of the side streets, the one dead, the other 
next to dying ; one on the pavement, the other in the gutter. 
They had said a moment before that ' Lincoln ought to have 
been shot long ago !' They were not allowed to say it again. 
Soon two long pieces of scantling stood out above the heads 
of the crowd, crossed at the top like the letter X, and a looped 
halter pendent from the junction, a dozen men following its^ 
slow motion through the masses, while 'Vengeance' was the 
cry. ^On the right, suddenly, the shout rose, 'The World!' 
' the World !' ' the office of the World !' ' World !' ' World !' 
r ad a movement of perhaps eight thousand or ten thousand, 
; jrning their faces in the direction of that building began to^ 
be executed. It was a critical moment. What might come; 
no one could tell, did that crowd get in front of that office. 
Police and military would have availed little or been too late. 
A telegram had just been read from Washington, 'Seward isj 
dying.' Just then, at that juncture, a man stepped forward: 
with a small flag in his hand, and beckoned to the crowd. 
'Another telegram from Washington!' And then, in thel 
awful stillness of the crisis, taking advantage of the hesitation! 
of the crowd, whose steps had been arrested a moment, aj 
right arm was lifted skyward, and a voice, clear and steady, 
loud and distinct, spoke out, ' Fellow-citizens ! Clouds and 
darkness are round about Him ! His pavilion is dark waters; 
and thick clouds of the skies ! Justice and judgment are the 
establishment of His throne ! Mercy and truth shall go be-, 
fore His face ! Fellow-citizens ! God reigns, and the Gov- 
ernment at Washington still lives!' The efl"ect was tremen* 
dous. The crowd stood riveted to the ground with aws,] 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



273 



gazing at the motionless orator, and thinking of God and the 
security of the Government in that hour. As the boiling 
waves subsides and settles to the sea, when some strong wind 
beats it down, so the tumult of the people sank and became 
still. All took it as a divine omen. It was a triumph of 
eloquence, inspired by the moment, such as falls to but one 
man's lot, and that but once in a century. The genius of 
Webster, Choate, Everett, Seward, never reached it. What 
might have happened had the surging and maddened mob 
been let loose, none can tell. The man for the crisis was on 
the spot, more potent than Napoleon's guns at Paris. I in- 
quired what was his name. The answer came in a low whis- 
per, 'It is General Garfivild, of Ohio !' " 

It was Garfield who made the speech when the 
House took official action on the death of the 
President, and it was he, again, who (February 
1 2th, 1878), retouched with his eloquent powers 
the same theme on receiving F. B. Carpenter's 
painting of Lincoln and Emancipation, on behalf 
of the nation. 

The reader pauses here, and recalls instinctively 
the terrible days with which this July (1881) 
opened: the dastardly assassination, the long hours 
of the President's tarrying at the gate of death, 
the suspense of the people, the silent agony of a 
nation ! And how, as it were the mighty voice of 
some past-time prophet comes ringing, like the 
cheer of a relief party, Garfield's words, with 
which he held a whole city at bay: "Fellow- 
citizens : God reigns, and the Government at 
Washington still lives !" Was it the hand of 



2yA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Providence that brought him so conspicuously to 
the front at Lincoln's death, to point years on to 
his own trial and agony from the assassin's bullet ? 
It was eminently natural that he should have 
been the chosen orator on such occasions, for 
every act of his life has been a testimony In defense 
of his country; that country which he loves so 
well. Speaking on its future, he said, at Hudson 
College : 

*' Our great dangers are not from without. We do not live 
by the consent of any other nation. We must look within to 
find elements of danger. The first and most obvious of these is 
territorial expansion, overgrowth, and the danger that we shall 
break to pieces by our own weight. This has been the common- 
place of historians and publicists for many centuries, and its 
truth has found many striking illustrations in the experience of 
mankind. But we have fair ground for believing, that new 
conditions and new forces have nearly if not wholly removed 
the ground of this danger. Distance, estrangement, isolation 
have been overcome by the recent amazing growth in the 
means of intercommunication. For political and industrial 
purposes California and Massachusetts are nearer neighbors 
to-day, than were Philadelphia and Boston in the days of the 
Revolution. It was distance, isolation, ignorance of separate 
parts, that broke the cohesive force of the great empires of 
antiquity. Fortunately, our greatest line of extension is from 
east to west, and our pathway along the parallels of latitude 
are not too broad for safety — for it lies within the zone of 
national development. The Gulf of Mexico is our special 
providence on the south. Perhaps it would be more fortu- 
nate for us if the northern shore of that gulf stretched west- 
ward to the Pacific. If our territory embraced the tropics, 
the sun would be our enem;y^ ' The stars in their course?' 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



275 



would fight against us. Now these celestial forces, are our 
friends, and help to make us one. Let us hope the Republic 
will be content to maintain this friendly alliance. 

*^ Our northern boundary is not yet wholly surveyed. Per- 
haps our neighbors across the lakes will some day take a hint 
from nature, and save themselves and us the discomfort of an 
artificial boundary. Restrained within our present southern 
limits with a population more homogenious than that of any 
other great nation, and with a wonderful power to absorb and 
assimilate to our own type the European races that come 
among us, we have but little reason to fear that we shall be 
broken up by divided interests and internal feuds, because 
of our great territorial extent. Finally, our great hope for 
the future — our great safeguard against danger, is to be found 
in the general and thorough education of our people and in 
the virtue which accompanies such education. And all these 
elements depend, in a large measure, upon the intellectual 
and moral culture of the young men who go out from our 
higher institutions of learning. From the standpoint of this 
general culture we may trustfully encounter the perils that 
assail us. Secure against dangers from abroad, united at 
home by the stronger ties of common interest and patriotic 
pride, holding and unifying our vast territory by the most 
potent forces of civilization, relying upon the intelligent 
strength and responsibility of each citizen, and, most of all, 
upon the power of truth, without undue arrogance, we may 
hope that in the centuries to come our Republic will continue 
to live and hold its high place among the nations as 

" * The heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time.' " 

From our Republic and its future, we turn aside 
to gather in a literary scrap, an address on Burns, 
in which we find this, from a fine comparison of 
three of the world's song-writers • 



276 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



" To appreciate the genius and achievements of Robert 
Burns, it is fitting to compare him with others who have been 
eminent in the same field. In the highest class of lyric 
poetry their names stand eminent. Their field covers eighteen 
centuries of time, and the three names are Horace, Beranger 
and Burns. It is an interesting and suggestive fact, that each 
of these sprang from the humble walks of life. Each may 
be described as one — 

*' ' Who begs a brother of the earth 
To give him leave to toil,' 

and each proved by his life and achievements that, however 
hard the lot of poverty, 'a man's a man for a' that.' 

^' A great writer has said that it took the age forty years to 
catch Burns, so far was he in advance of the thoughts of his 
times. But we ought not to be surprised at the power he 
exhibited. We are apt to be misled when we seek to find 
the cause of greatness in the schools and universities alone. 
There is no necessary conflict between nature and art. In 
the highest and best sense art is as natural as nature. We do 
not wonder at the perfect beauty of the rose, although we may 
not understand the mysteries by which its delicate petals are 
fashioned and fed out of the grosser elements of earth. We 
do not wonder at the perfection of the rose because God is 
the artist. When He fashioned the germ of the rose-tree He 
made possible the beauties of its flower. The earth and air 
and sunshine conspired to unfold and adorn it — to tint and 
crown it with peerless beauty. When the Divine Artist would 
produce a poem. He plants a germ of it in a human soul, and 
out of that soul the po^m springs and grows as from the rose- 
tree the rose. 

"Burns was a child of nature. He lived close to her beat- 
ing heart, and all the rich and deep sympathies of life glowed 
and lived in his heart. The beauties of earth, air and sky 
filled and transfigured him. 

" ' He did but sing because he must, 
And fiiped but as the linnets sing.' 

** With the light of his genius he glorified 'the banks and 
braes' of his native land, and, speaking for the universal 
human heart, has. set its sweetest thought to music: 

" ' Whose echoes roll from soul to soul. 
And grow forever wnd forever,' " 



^AMES A. GARFIELD. 



277 



Here we will add a metrical version of the third 
ode in Horace's First Book, which General Gar- 
field made In 1873 : 

TO THE SHIP WHICH CARRIED VIRGIL TO ATHENS. 

I. 

So may the powerful goddess of Cyprus, 
So may the brothers of Helen, turn stars, 
So may the father and ruler of tempest 
(Restraining all others, save only lapix). 

Tl. 

Guide thee, O ship, on thy journey, that owest 
To Attica's shores Virgil trusted to thee. 
I pray thee restore him, in safety restore him. 
And saving him, save me the half of my soul. 

III. 

Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom 
Who first to the waves of the merciless sea 
Committed his frail bark. He feared not Africus, 
Fierce battling the gales of the furious North. 

IV. 

Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-bearing Hyads, 
Nor the rage of fierce Notus. a tyrant than whom 
No storm-god that rules or the broad Adriatic 
Is mightier, its billows to rouse or to calm. 

V. 

What form, or what pathway of death him affrighted. 

Who faced with dry eyes monsters swimming tne deep, 

Who gazed without fear on the storm-swollen billows. 

And the lightning-scarred rocks, grim with death on the shore? 

VI. 
In vain did the prudent Creator dissever 
The lands from the lands by the desolate sea, 
If o'er its broad bosom, to mortals forbidden. 
Still leap, all profanely, our impious keels. 

VII. 

Recklessly bold to encounter all dangers, 
Through deeds God forbidden still rushes our race ; 
The son of lapelus. Heaven-defying, 
By impious fraud to the nations brought fire. 

VIII. 
When fire was thus stolen from regions celestial. 
Decay smote the earth and brought down in his train 
A new summoned cohort of fevers o'erbrooding. 
And Fate, till then slow and reluctant to strike, 

IX. 
Gave wings to his speed and swift death to his victims. 
Bold Dzedalus tried the void realms of the air. 
Borne upward on pinions not given to mortals. 
The labors of Hercules broke into Hell. 

X. 

Naught is too high for the daring of mortals. 

Even Heaven we seek in our folly to scale : 

By our own impious crimes we permit not the thundtc 

To Bleep without flame in the right hand of Jove. 



278 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXI. 

QUESTIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with his entry 
into Congress, Garfield began a course of 
severe study of financial and political 
economy, going home every evening to his modest 
lodgings on Thirteenth Street, with an armfial of 
books borrowed from the Congressional Library, 
Into which he deeply burrowed. This study was 
superbly lucrative. For his financial views have 
always been sound and based on the firm founda- 
tion of honest money and unsullied national 
honor. His record in the legislation concerning 
these subjects is without a flaw. No man in Con- 
gress made a more consistent and unwavering 
fight against the paper money delusions that 
flourished during the decade following the war, 
and in favor of specie payments and the strict ful- 
fillment of the nation's obligations to its creditors. 
His speeches became the financial gospel of the 
Republican party. 

We will quote some texts from this gospel. In 
the course of his strenuous fight against the re- 
peal of the resumption act, Mr. Garfield said : 

"The men of 1862 knew the dangers from sad experience 
in our history; and, like Ulysses, lashed themselves to the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2 7(1 

mast of public credit when they embarked upon the stormy 
and boisterous sea of inflated paper money, that they might 
not be beguiled by the siren song that would be sung to them 
when they were afloat on the wild waves. 

''But the times have changed ; new men are on deck, men 

who have forgotten the old pledges, and now only twelve 

years have passed (for as late as 1865 this House, with but six 

dissenting votes, resolved again to stand by the old ways and 

bring the country back to sound money), only twelve years 

have passed, and what do we find? We find a group of 

theorists and doctrinaires who look upon the wisdom of the 

fathers as foolishness. We find some who advocate what they 

call 'absolute money,' who declare that a piece of paper 

stamped a 'dollar' is a dollar; that gold and silver are a part 

of the barbarism of the past, which ought to be forever 

abandoned. We hear them declaring that resumption is a 

delusion and a snare. W6 hear them declaring that the eras 

of prosperity are the eras of paper money. They point us to 

all times of inflation as periods of blessing to the people and 

prosperity to business ; and they ask us no more to vex their 

ears with any allusion to the old standard — the money of the 

Constitution. Let the wild swarm of financial literature that 

has sprung into life within the last twelve years, witness how 

widely and how far we have drifted. We have lost our old 

moorings, and have thrown overboard our old compass ; we 

sail by alien stars, looking not for the haven, but are afloat on 

a harborless sea. 

"Suppose you undo the work that Congress has attempted 
' — to resume specie payment — what will result ? You will de- 
preciate the value of the greenback. Suppose it falls ten 
cents on the dollar? You will have destroyed ten per cent. 
of the value of every deposit in the savings banks, ten per 
cent, of every life insurance policy and fire insurance policy, 
of every pension to the soldier, and of every day's wages of 
every laborer in the nation. The trouble with our greenback 
dollar is this ; it has two distinct functions, one a purchasing 



28o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



power, and the other a debt-paying power. As a debt-paying 
power, it is equal to one hundred cents ; that is, to pay an 
old debt. A greenback dollar will, by law, discharge our 
hundred cents of debt. But no law can give it purchasing 
power in the general market of the world, unless it represents 
a known standard of coin value. Now, what we want is, that 
these two qualities of our greenback dollar shall be made 
equal^its debt-paying power and its general purchasing 
power. When these are equal, the problems of our currency 
are solved, and not till then. Summing it all up in a word, the 
struggle now pending in this House is, on the one hand, to 
make the greenback better, and on the other, to make it 
worse. The resumption act is making it better every day. 
Repeal that act, and you make it indefinitely worse. In the 
name of every man who wants his own when he has earned it, 
I demand that we do not make the wages of the poor man to -j 
shrivel in his hands after he has earned them ; but that his 
money shall be made better and better, until the plow-holder's 
money shall be as good as the bondholder's money ; until our 
standard is one, and there is no longer one money for the 
rich and another for the poor." 

Privately he wrote to Mr. Hinsdale : 

"Washington, D, C, December 15th, 1867. 

« 1 appreciate what you say in reference to the currency question. My 
convictions on some points of tliat subject are so clear that I have a very 
plain duty to do, from which I dare not flinch, were I coward enough to 
desire to. 

"The Phillipses are quite mistaken in supposing that theirs is a case 
without precedent. On the contrary, there are an abundance of precedents, 
both in our own and other countries, and they all teach the same lesson. 
Financial subjects are nuts and clover for demagogues. Men's first opinions 
are almost always wrong in regard to them, as they are in regard to 
astronomy, and he who reads the truths that lie deepest is in imminent 
danger of being tabooed for a madman. 

" * * * It may be that before very long that the only escape out of 
the Butler-Pendleton bond repudiation scheme on the one hand, and the 
contraction and inflation flght on the other, is by the shortest road to specie 
payments, when the contractionists will be willing to let the inflationists 
have their fill of paper money so long as they redeem it, and when the cry 
Ihat the soldier or his widow is paid in poorer money than the bondholder 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 28 1 

would be ended. The early return to specie payments would settle more 
difficult and dangerous questions than any one such act has done in histor)', 
so far as I know. I am glad to have the opportunity of standing up against 
a rabble of men who hasten to make weathercocks of themselves. 

*< Think of this. December 8th, 1865, the House passed the following 
resolution by ayes 144, noes 6 : ' Resolved, That this House cordially 
concurs in the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the ne- 
cessity of a conti'action of the currency, with a view to as early resumption 
K specie payments as the business interests of tlie country will permit, and 
we hereby pledge co-operation to this end as speedily as possible.' 
' " Ten years ago but thirty-two men were found to vote against a bill to 

stop contraction altogether. There are near a hundred of the same men 
who voted on the two measures." 

He has never wavered upon this issue. He 
voted to sustain the credit of the Government In 
all stages of the finance question. Many faltered, 
he always stood firm. In 1870 he pressed a reso- 
lution upon Congress pledging that body and the 
country to an honorable performance of Its con- 

* tracts, and In 1876, when the "fiat" rage was upon 
the people, and his party friends In Ohio fell away 

l| from him In all directions, he stood firm. To all 
protests and appeals he had but one answer, "It 
is honorable ; It Is just ; It Is right. Standing here 
may defeat my nomination, may defeat my elec- 

I tion ; but I would rather be beaten In right than 
succeed in wrong." In his speech at MIssIllon, 

I O., August 24th, 1878, speaking of resumption, he 
said : 

''It is right because the public faith demands it; it is as 
unpatriotic as it is dishonest to attempt to prevent it. The 
I highest interests both of labor and capital demand it." 

Referring In the same speech to the substltu- 
I tion of greenbacks for national bank notes, h« 
said : 



282 ^^^^ ^"^^ PUBLIC CAREER O^ 

" TViis makes a complete divorce between the business of 
the country and the volume of its circulating mediums. Are 
we prepared, under a Government which our fathers meant 
should be a hard-money Government, to banish gold and sil- 
ver from circulation in the country for all time to come, and 
do the business of the country upon nothing but irredeemable 
paper, depending for its volume upon the will and caprice of 
the moment or upon the views of members of Congress seek' 
ing re-election or aspiring to higher places?" 

When Mr. Garfield entered Congress, he ob- 
served that no one devoted himself to an exami- 
nation of the appropriations in detail, and in order 
to acquaint himself so as to vote intelligently upon 
them, he submitted them to a careful analysis. 
This analysis he yearly delivered to the House, 
and it was from the start well received. It came 
in time to be called ''Garfield's budget speech." 
Now each year he examines the appropriations 
carefully — being a member of the committee — 
and then makes his speech, which is always ac- 
cepted as the exposition of the nation's conditior 
By its means and his committee work, he hac 
largely reduced the expenditures of the Govern- 
ment and thoroughly reformed the system of esti- 
mates and appropriations, providing for closer 
accountability on the part of those who spend the 
public money, and a clear knowledge on the part 
of those who vote it of what it is used for. 

Illustratinof this he said on one occasion : 

'*The necessary expenditures of the Government form the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 283 

base line from which we measure the amount of our taxation 
required, and on which we base our system of finance. We 
have frequently heard it remarked since the session began, 
that we should make our expenditures come within our reve- 
nues — that we should 'cut our garment according to our 
cloth. ' This theory may be correct when applied to private 
affairs, but it is not applicable to the wants of nations. Our 
national expenditures should be measured by the real necessi- 
ties and the proper needs of the Government. We should cut 
our garment so as to fit the person to be clothed. If he be a 
giant we must provide cloth sufficient for a fitting garment. 

^'The Committee on Appropriations are seeking earnestly 
to reduce the expenditures of the Government, but they reject 
the doctrine that they should at all hazards reduce the expend- 
itures to the level of the revenues, however small those reve- 
nues may be. They have attempted rather to ascertain what 
are the real and vital necessities of the Government; to find 
what amount of money will suffice to meet all its honorable 
obligations, to carry on all its necessary and essential func- 
tions, and to keep alive those public enterprises which the 
country desires its Government to undertake and accomplish. 
When the amount of expenses necessary to meet these objects 
is ascertained, that amount should be appropriated, and ways 
and means for procuring that amount should be provided. 
On some accounts, it is unfortunate that our work of appro- 
priations is not connected directly with the work of taxation. 
If this were so, the necessity of taxation would be a constant 
check upon extravagance, and the practice of economy would 
promise, as its immediate result, the pleasure of reducing 
taxation." 

Referring to Garfield's tariff record, it is 
both just and proper that we should state the pro- 
tectionists of the country who have kept watch 
over tariff legislation during the past twenty 



284 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



years, and who have assisted to shape and main« 
tain the present tariff, are perfectly satisfied with 
his tariff votes and speeches. They and all other 
protectionists have, indeed, abundant reason to be 
thankful to him for valuable assistance rendered 
to the cause of home industry when it was in 
serious peril from free-trade attacks. His votes 
and speeches have been uniformly and constantly 
in favor of the protective policy. His first tariff 
speech in Congress was made in 1866. In this 
speech he carefully defined his position on the 
question of protection, as follows : 

''I hold that a properly adjusted competition between 
home and foreign products is the best gauge to regulate in- 
ternational trade. Duties should be so high that our manu/ac 
turers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so 
high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy 
a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they 
please. This is my doctrine of protection. If Congress 
pursues this line of policy steadily, we shall, year by year, 
approach more nearly to the basis of free trade, because we 
shall be more nearly able to compete with other nations on 
equal terms. I am for a protection that leads to ultimate free 
trade. I am for that free trade which can only be achieved 
through a reasonable protection." 

In his next tariff speech, delivered in 1870, upon 
General Schenck's tariff bill, which provoked a 
long and bitter controversy. General Garfield ad- 
vised the protectionists of the House to assent to 
a moderate reduction of the war duties which 
were then in force ; for the reason that they were 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 285 

higher than was then necessary for the protection 
of our Industries, and, being so, they gave occa- 
sion for unfriendly criticism of the protective 
policy, from which it should be relieved. He said: 

"After studying the whole subject as carefully as I am able, 
I am firmly of the opinion that the wisest thing that the pro- 
tectionists in this House can do is to unite in a moderate re- 
duction of duties on imported articles. He is not a faithful 
representative who merely votes for the highest rate proposed 
in order to show on the record that he voted for the highest 
figure, and, therefore, is a sound protectionist. He is the 
wisest man who sees the tides and currents of public opinion, 
and uses his best efforts to protect the industry of the people 
against sudden collapses and sudden changes. Now, if I do 
not misunderstand the signs of the times, unless we do this our- 
selves, prudently and wisely, we shall before long be com- 
pelled to submit to a violent reduction, made rudely ^nd 
without discrimination, which will shock if not shatter . "^1 
our protected industries. 

"■ The great want of industry is a stable policy ; and it is a 
significant comment on the character of our legislation that 
Congress has become a terror to the business men of the 
country. This very day, the great industries of the nation 
are standing still, half paralyzed at the uncertainty which 
hangs over our proceedings here. A distinguished citizen of 
my own district has lately written me this significant sen- 
tence : * If the laws of God and nature were as vacillating 
and uncertain as the laws of Congress in regard to the busi- 
ness of its people, the universe would soon fall into chaos.' 

''Examining thus the possibilities of the ^situation, I be- 
lieve that the true course for the friends of protection to pur- 
sue is to reduce the rates on imports when we can justly and 
safely do so ; and, accepting neither of the extreme doctrines 
urged on this floor, endeavor to establish a stable policy that 
will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people." 



2g5 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

General Schenck's bill passed the House, June 
6th, 1870, General Garfield voting for it in com- 
pany with all the protectionists in that body. It 
passed the Senate during the same month, such 
leading protectionists as Senators Howe, Scott, 
Morrill, of Vermont, Sherman and Wilson, voting 
for it. The bill reduced the duties on a long list of 
articles — pig iron, for instance, from nine dollars to 
seven dollars — but it was a triumph of the pro- 
tective policy and a disastrous defeat of the free- 
traders and revenue reformers, who had favored 
still lower duties. It embodied provisions that are 
retained In the existing tariff, with which all pro- 
tectionists are entirely satisfied. 

In 1872, two years after the passage of General 
Schenck's bill, a bill to reduce duties on imports 
and to reduce internal taxes was reported to the 
House of Representatives, by Mr. Dawes, the 
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, 
and after discussion it passed by a large majority, 
such prominent protectionists as Dawes, Frye, 
Foster, Frank W. Palmer^ Ellis H. Roberts, Wil- 
liam A. Wheeler, and George F. Hoar voting for 
It. General Garfield voted for it. Judge Kelley 
and sixty other protectionists voted against it. It 
became a law, passed the Senate by a twd-thirds ; 
vote, such leading protectionists as Ferry, Howe, , 
the two Morrills, Morton, Sherman and Wilson, 
supporting it. Protectionists, as will be seen, were : 
not united upon thq merits of this bill, which| , 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



287 



among other provisions, reduced the duty on many 
iron and steel products ten per cent., but there 
was no conflict of principle Involved In their dif- 
ferences — nothing but a question of expediency. 

Says a recent Avrlter on this subject, giving a 
page of Its history : 

*'In 1875, three years after the passage of the bill just re- 
ferred to, Mr. Dawes, still chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee, reported a bill to further protect the sinking fund 
and to provide for the exigencies of the Government, which 
provided among other things for the restoration of the ten 
per cent, which had been taken from the duties on iron and 
steel by the act of 1872. This bill passed the House by a 
i close vote. General Garfield voting for it, as did nearly every 
i protectionist in the House. The bill passed the Senate and 
became a law, the vote being very close — yeas, 30; nays, 29. 
: The protectionists in the Senate were almost unanimously in 
j favor of it. Mr. Sherman made a strong speech against it, 
' and Mr. Scott and Mr. Frelinghuysen very ably supported it. 
1 Mr. Sherman voted against it. The passage of this bill gave 
great encouragement to our prostrated iron and steel in- 
dustries. 

^'The next tariff measure that came before Congress was 
the bill of Mr. Morrison, which was presented in the House 
in 1876, but was so vigorously opposed that it never reached 
the dignity of a square vote upon its merits. Two years after, 
iward Mr. Wood undertook the preparation of a tariff bill 
which greatly reduced duties on most articles of foreign man- 
ufacture, and which he confidently hoped might become a 
|law. This bill possessed more vitality than that of Mr. Mor- 
jrison's, and it was with great difficulty that the friends of pro- 
tection were able to secure its defeat. On the 4th of June 
[General Garfield delivered an elaborate speech against it ?V 
jf ommittee of the whole^ in the course of which he said ; 



2gg LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

" ' I would have the duty so adjusted that every great Amer- 
ican industry can fairly -live and make fair profits. The chief 
charge I make against this bill is that it seeks to cripple the 
protective features of the law. ' 

''He further said, in concluding his speech: 

*' 'A bill so radical in its character, so dangerous to our busi- 
ness prosperity, would work infinite mischief at this time, 
when the country is just recovering itself from a long period 
of depression and getting again upon solid ground, just com- 
ing up out of the wild sea of panic and distress which has 
tossed us so long. 

*' ' Let it be remembered that twenty-two per cent, of all the 
laboring people of this country are artisans engaged in manu- 
factures. Their culture has been fostered by our tariff laws. 
It is their pursuits and the skill which they have developed 
that produced the glory of our Centennial Exhibition. To 
them the country owes the splendor of the position it holds 
before the world more than to any other equal number of our 
citizens. If this bill becomes a law, it strikes down their occu- 
pation and throws into the keenest distress the brightest and 
best elements of our population. 

** * When the first paragraph has been read I will propose tG 
strike out the enacting clause. If the committee will do that 
we can kill the bill to-day.* 

''On the day following the delivery of General Garfield's 
speech his suggestion to strike out the enacting clause was 
carried into effect, upon motion of Mr. Conger, and the bill 
was killed; yeas, 134; nays, 121. The majority against the 
bill was only 13. 

"During the recent session of Congress a vigorous effort was 
made to break down the tariff by piecemeal legislation. ' Di- 
vide and conquer' was the motto of the free-traders. They 
were defeated in every effort to reduce duties, and in every 
instance they encountered General Garfield's opposition. 
Iron and steel manufacturers have good cause to remember 
his vote in the Ways and Means Committee last March on 
the bill of Mr. Covert to reduce the duty on steel rails. Gen- 
eral Garfield voted with Judge Kelley and Messrs. Conger, 
Frye, Felton, Gibson and Phelps against any reduction, and 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 28q 

that was the end of I\Ir. Covert's bill — the vote being seven 
against to six in favor of it. Had the bill prevailed the en- 
tire line of duties on iron and steel and other manufactures 
would have been seriously endangered." 

A word on another question of political econ- 
omy to close this chapter appropriately, remem- 
bering the national work this year, is found in 
General Garfield's speech urging the importance 
of the last census : 

'* The developments of statistics are causing history to be 
re-written. Till recently the historian studied nature in the 
aggregate, and gave us only the story of princes, dynasties, 
sieges and battles. Of the people themselves — the great 
social body, with life, growth, forces, elements, etc. — he told 
us nothing. Now, statistical inquiry leads him into the 
hovels, homes, workshops, mines, fields, prisons, hospitals, 
and all places v/here human nature displays its weakness and 
strength. In these explorations he discovers the seed of na- 
tional growth and decay, and thus becomes the prophet of his 
generation. 

''Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesman- 
ship. In legislation, as in physical science, it Is beginning to 
be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by 
obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his sta- 
tistics not only the national will, but also those great laws of 
social life revealed by statistics. He must study society rather 
than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth that 'so- 
ciety usually prepares the crime, and the criminal Is only the 
instrument that completes it;' that statesmanship consists 
rather in removing causes than In punishing or evading 
results." 



17 



290 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXII. 



ARRAIGNING HIS ENEMIES. 



GENERAL GARFIELD has ever dealt 
his enemies in Congress sledge-hammer 
blows, and yet not with any malignity or 
from the sly hand of revenge. His tongue has 
only been moved by what he considered the ne- 
cessities of the situation. The inheritance of tra- 
dition from his district would, if no other cause 
had prompted, have allied him with the North 
when the Rebellion became a question for each 
and every one. His vigorous, clear mind needed 
no words to shape its course. Whenever the 
Union was concerned he answered every call with 
electric readiness. 

One of his early speeches in Congress gave 
him high oratorical rank. Alexander Long, of 
Ohio, delivered in 1864 an exceedingly ultra Peace- 
Democratic speech — proposing that Congress 
should recognize the Southern Confederacy. The 
speech attracted marked attention, and by com- 
mon consent it was left to the young member, 'so 
fresh from the battle-fields of his country, to reply. 
The moment Long took his seat, Garfield rose. 
His opening sentence thrilled his listeners. In a 
moment he was surrounded by a crowd of mem- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 2QI 

bers from the remoter seats, and In the midst of 
great excitement and wild applause from his side 
he poured forth an Invective rarely surpassed In 
that body for power and elegance : 

**Mr. Chairman : I am reminded by the ocurrences of this 
aftefnoon of two characters in the War of the Revolution, as 
compared with two others in the war of to-day. 

^*The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt near the Potomac, a 
few miles from us. When the great contest was opened be- 
tween the mother country and the colonies, Lord Fairfax, 
after a protracted struggle with his own heart, decided that 
he must go with the mother country. He gathered his man- 
tle #>^bout him and went over grandly and solemnly. 

** There was another man, who cast in his lot with the 
struggling colonists and continued with them till the war was 
well-nigh ended. In an hour of darkness that just preceded 
the glory of morning, he hatched the treason to surrender for- 
ever all that had been gained by the enemies of his country. 
Benedict Arnold was that man. 

^''Fairfax and Arnold find their parallel in the struggle of 
to-day. 

''When this war was begun many good men stood hesitating 
and doubting what they ought to do. Robert E. Lee sat in 
his house across the river here, doubting and delaying, and 
going off at last almost tearfully to join the army of his State. 
He reminds one in some respects, of Lord Fairfax, the stately 
royalist of the Revolution. 

''But now, when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone 
up to God under the shadow of the flag; when thousands 
more, maimed and shattered in the contest, are sadly awaiting 
the deliverance of death; now, when three years of terrific 
warfare have raged over us, when our armies have pushed the 
rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded it into 
narrow limits unf'' \ wall of fire girds it j now, when the up- 



20 2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

lifted hand of a majestic people is about to hurl the bolts of 
its conquering power upon the rebellion, now in the quiet of 
this hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a similar dark trea- 
son, there rises a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender 
all up, body and spirit, the nation and the flag, its genius and 
its honor, now and forever to the accursed traitors to our 
country. And that proposition comes — God forgive and pity 
my beloved State — it comes from a citizen of the time-honored 
and loyal commonv/ealth of Ohio. 

''I implore you, brethren, in this House, to believe that 
not many births ever gave pangs to my mother State, such as 
she suffered when that traitor was born ! I beg you not to 
believe that on the soil of that State such another growth has 
erer deformed the face of nature, and darkened the light of 
God's day!" 

The speech continued in the same strain, 
poHshed and powerful. Its deHvery upon the spur 
of the moment, in immediate reply to an elaborate 
effort, which had taken him as well as the rest of 
the House by surprise, won him a crowning 
credit. 

Four years ago he handles the same question, 
as it reappears, in another and less objectionable 
form. In the course of a speech, '' Can the Dem- 
ocratic Party be Safely Intrusted with the Adminis- 
tration of the Government," in answer to Mr. 
Lamar, the Great Republican said : 

''I share all that gentleman's aspirations for peace, for 
good government at the South — and I believe I can safely as- 
sure him that the great majority of tlie nalio'.i shares the same 
aspirations. But he will allow me to say that he has not fully 
stated the elements of the great problem to be solved by the 



yAMES A. GARFIELD. 



293 



statesmanship of to-day. The actual field is much broader 
than the view he has taken. And before we can agree that 
the remedy he proposes is an adequate one, we must take in 
the whole field, comprehend all the conditions of the prob- 
lem, and then see if his remedy is sufficient. The change he 
proposes is not like the ordinary change of a ministry in 
England, when the Government is defeated on a tax bill or 
some routine measure of legislation. He proposes to turn 
over the custody and management of the Government to 
a party which has pei^istently, and with the greatest bit- 
terness, resisted all the great changes of the last fifteen 
years — changes which were the necessary results of a vast 
revolution — a revolution in national policy, in social and 
political ideas ; a revolution whose causes were not the 
work of a day nor a year, but of generations and centuries. 
'^ The scope and character of that mighty revolution must 
form the basis of our judgment when we inquire whether 
such a change as he proposes is safe and wise. But that is 
Tioi; all of the situation. On the other hand, we see the 
North, after leaving its three hundred and fifty thousand dead 
upon the field of battle and bringing home its five hundred 
thousand maimed and wounded to be cared for, crippled in its 
industries, staggering under the tremendous burden of public 
and private debt, and both North and South weighted with un- 
paralleled burdens and losses — the whole nation suffering 
from that loosening of the bonds of social order which al- 
ways follows a great war, and from the resulting corruption 
both in the public and the private life of the people. These, 
Mr. Chairman, constitute the vast field which we must sur- 
vey in order to find the path which will soonest lead our be- 
loved country to the highway of peace, of liberty and pros- 
perity. Peace from the shock of battle, the higher peace 
of our streets, of our homes, of our equal rights, we must 
make secure by making the conquering ideas of the war 
everywhere dominant and permanent. But such a result can 
be reached only by comprehending the whole meaning of 



2QA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

the revolution through which we have passed and are stiU 
passing. I say still passing; for I remember that after the 
battle of arms comes the battle of history. The cause that 
triumphs in the field does not always triumph in history. 
And those who carried the war for union, and equal and uni- 
versal freedom to a victorious issue can never safely relax 
their vigilance, until the ideas for which they fought have 
become embodied in the enduring forms of individual and 
national life. 

"Has this been done? Not yet. I ask the gentleman in 
all plainness of speech, and yet in all kindness, is he correct 
in his statement that the conquered party accept the results 
of the war? Even if they do, I remind the gentleman that 
accept is not a very strong word. I go further. I ask him if 
the Democratic party have adopted the results of the war ? 
Is it not asking too much of human nature to expect such un- 
paralleled changes to be not only accepted, but in so short 
a time adopted by men of strong and independent opinions. 
This conflict of opinion was not merely one of sentimental 
feeling; it involved our whole political system; it gave rise 
to two radically different theories of the nature of our Gov- 
ernment : the North believing and holding that we were a 
nation, the South insisting that we were only a confedera- 
tion of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had the 
right, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and con- 
stantly threatening secession where the full rights of slavery 
were not acknowledged. Thus the defense and aggrandize- 
ment of slavery, and the hatred of abolitionism, became, 
not only the central idea of the Democratic party, but its 
master passion, a passion intensified and inflamed by twenty- 
five years of fierce political contest, which had not only 
driven from its ranks all those who preferred freedom to slav' 
ery, but had absorbed all the extreme pro-slavery elements 
of the fallen Whig party. Over against this was arrayed the 
Republican party, asserting the broad doctrines of nation- 
ality and loyalty, insisting that ne State had a right to secede, 



'jAMES A. GARFIELD. 2Qi^ 

that secession was treason, and demanding that the institu- 
tion of slavery should be restricted to the limits of the 
States where it already existed. But here and there, many 
bolder and more radical thinkers declared, with Wendell 
Phillips, that there never could be union and peace, freedom 
and prosperity, until we were willing to see John Hancock 
under a black skin. Now, I ask the gentleman if he is quite 
sure, as a matter of fact, that the Democratic party, its southern 
as well as its northern wing, have followed his own illustri- 
ous and worthy example in the vast progress he has made 
since 1859? He assures us that the transformation has been 
so complete, that the nation can safely trust all the most pre- 
cious fruits of the war in the hands of that party who stood 
with him in 1859. If that be true, I rejoice at it with all my 
heart ; but the gentleman must pardon me if I ask him to 
assist my wavering faith by some evidence, some consoling 
proofs. When did the great transformation take place ? Cer- 
tainly not within two years after the delivery of the speech I 
have quoted ; for, two years from that time the contest has 
arisen much higher ; it had risen to the point of open, terrible 
and determined war. Did the change come during the war? 
Oh, no; for, in the four terrible years ending in 1865, every 
resource of courage and power that the Southern States could 
muster was employed not only to save slavery, but to destroy 
the Union. So the transformation had not occurred in 1865. 
When did it occur? Aid our anxious inquiry, for the nation 
ought to be sure that the great change has occurred before it 
can safely trust its destinies to the Democratic party. Did it 
occur in the first epoch of reconstruction — the two years im- 
mediately following the war? During that period the at- 
tempt was made to restore governments in the South on the 
basis of the white vote. Military control was held generally, 
but the white population of the Southern States were invited 
to elect their own legislatures and establish provisional gov- 
ernments. In the laws, covering a period of two and a half 
years, 1S65, 1866, and a portion of 1867, enacted by those 



296 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



legislatures, we ought to find proof of the transformation, if it 
had then occurred. What do we find ? What we should 
naturally expect, that a people, accustomed to the domination 
of slavery, re-enacted in almost all of the Southern States, and 
notably in the States of Mississippi and Louisiana, laws limit- 
ing and restricting the liberty of the colored man ; vagrant 
laws and peonage laws, whereby negroes were sold at auction 
for the payment of a paltry tax or fine, and held in a slavery 
as real as the slavery of other days. I believe this was true of 
nearly all of the Southern States ; so that the experiment of 
allowing the white population of the South to adjust that very 
question proved a frightful failure ; and then it was that the 
National Congress intervened. They proposed an act of re- 
construction, an act which became a law on the 2d of March, 
1867. That was the plan of reconstruction offered to those 
who had been in rebellion, offered by a generous and brave 
nation ; and I challenge the world to show an act of equal 
generosity to a conquered people. What answer did it meet? 
By the advice of Andrew Johnson, a bad adviser, backed by 
the advice of the Northern Democracy, a still worse adviser, 
ten of the eleven States lately in rebellion contemptuously 
rejected the plan of reconstruction embraced in the Fourteenth 
Amendment of the Constitution. They would have none of 
it; they had been advised by their Northern allies to stand 
out, and were told when the Democracy came into power they 
should be permitted to come back to their places without 
guarantees or conditions. This brings us to 1S68. Had the 
transformation occurred then ? For, remember, gentlemen, 
I am searching for the date of the great transformation similar 
to that which has taken place in the gentleman from Mis- 
sissippi. We do not find it in 186S. On the contrary, in 
that year, we find Frank P. Blair, of Missouri, writing these 
words, which, a few days after they were written, gave him the 
nomination for the Vice-Presidency on the Democratic ticket : 
**' There is but one way to restore government and the 
Constitution, and that is for the President elect to declare 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 20^ 

these acts ' — and the Constitutional Amendment with them — 
* to declare all these acts null and void, compel the army to 
undo its usurpations at the South, and disperse the carpet-bag 
State governments, and allow the white people to recognize 
their own governments, and elect Senators and Representa- 
tives.' 

''Because he wrote that letter he was nominated for Vice- 
President by the Dem.ocratic party. Therefore, as late as 
July, 1868, the transformation had not occurred. Had it 
occurred in 1872? In 1871 and 1872 all the amendments 
of the Constitution had been adopted, against the stubborn 
resistance of the Northern and Southern Democracy. I call 
you to witness that, with the exception of three or four Demo- 
cratic representatives, who voted for the abolition of slavery, 
the three great amendments, the thirteenth, the fourteenth 
and the fifteenth, met the determined and united opposition 
of the Democracy of this country. Each of the amendments, 
now so praised by the gentleman, was adopted against the 
whole weight of your resistance. And two years after the 
adoption of the last amendment, in many of your State plat- 
forms, they were declared null and void. In 1S71 and 1872 
occurred throughout the South those dreadful scenes, enacted 
by the Ku-Klux organizations, of which I will say onl}* this : 
that a man facile princcps among the Democrats of tlie slave- 
holding States — Reverdy Johnson — who was sent down to 
defend those who were indicted for their crimes, held up his 
hands in horror at the shocking barbarities that had been per- 
petrated by his clients upon negro citizens. I refer to the 
evidence of that eminent man, as a sufficient proof of the 
character of that great conspiracy against the freedom of the 
colored race. So the transformation had not come in the 
days of Ku-Klux, of 1S71 and 1872. Had it come in 1873 
and the beginning of 1874? Had it come in the State of 
Mississippi? Had it come in one-quarter ol the States lately 
in rebellion ? Here is a report from an honorable committee 
of the House, signed by two gentlemen who are still members, 



2Qg 11P£: AJ^D pvjBLIc career of 

Mr. Conger and Mr. Hurlbut— a report made as late at 
December, 1874, in which there is disclosed, by innumerable 
witnesses, the proof that the white-line organization, an 
avowed military organization, formed within the Democratic 
party, had leagued themselves together to prevent the enjoy- 
ment of suffrage and equal rights by the colored men of the 
South. 

''Mr. Chairman, after the facts I have cited, am I not war- 
ranted in raising a grave doubt whether the transformation 
occurred at all, except in a few patriotic and philosophic 
minds? The light gleams first on the mountain peaks; but | 
shadows and darkness linger in the valley. It is in the valley 
masses of those lately in rebellion that the light of this beau- 
tiful philosophy, which I honor, has not penetrated. Is it 
safer to withhold from them the custody and supreme con- 
trol of the precious treasures of the Republic until the mid- 
day sun of liberty, justice and equal laws shall shine upon 
them with unclouded ray? In view of all the facts, consider- 
ing the centuries of influence that brought on the great strug. , 
gle^ is it not reasonable to suppose that it will require yet " 
more time to effect the great transformation? The gentleman 
from Mississippi (Mr. Lamar) says there is no possibility that 
the South will again control national affairs, if the Democ- 
racy be placed again in power. How is this? We are told 
that the South will vote as a unit for Tilden and Hendricks. 
Suppose those gentlemen also carry New York and Indiana. 
Does the gentleman believe that a northern minority of the 
Democracy will control the administration ? Impossible ! 
But if they did, would it better the case? 

''Let me put the question in another form. Suppose, gen- 
tlemen of the South, you had won the victory in the war; 
that you had captured Washington, and Gettysburg, and 
Philadelphia, and New York ; and we of the North, defeated 
and conquered, had lain prostrate at your feet. Do you be- 
lieve that by this time you would be ready and willing to in- 
trust to us — our Garrisons, our Phillipses, and our Wades, and 



yAM£S A. GARFIELD. 



295 



thie great array of those who were the leaders of our thoughts 
— the fruits of your victor)'-; the enforcement of your doctrines 
of State sovereignty, and the work of extending the domain 
of slavery? Do you think so? And if not, will you not 
pardon us when we tell you that we are not quite ready to 
trust the precious results of the nation's victory in your 
hands ? Let it be constantly borne in mind that I am not 
debating a question of equal rights and privileges within the 
Union, but whether those who so lately sought to destroy it 
ought to be chosen to control its destiny for the next four 
years. 

*^It is now time to inquire as to the fitness of this Demo- 
cratic party to take control of our great nation ^.nd its vast 
and important interests for the next four years. I put the 
question to the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Lamar, what 
has the Democratic party done to merit that great trust? He 
tries to show in what respects it would be dangerous. I ask 
him to show in what it would be safe. I affirm, and I believe 
I do not misrepresent the great Democratic party, that in the 
last sixteen years they have not advanced one great national 
idea that is not to-day exploded and as dead as Julius Ceesar. 
And if any Democrat here will rise and name a great national 
doctrine his party has advanced, within that time, that is now 
alive and believed in, I will yield to him. [A pause.] In 
default of an answer I will attempt to prove my negative. 

"What were the great central doctrines of the Democratic 
party in the Presidential struggle of i860? The followers of 
Breckenridge said slavery had a right to go wherever the Con- 
stitution goes. Do you believe that to-day? And is there a 
man on this continent that holds that doctrine to-day? Not 
one. That doctrine is dead and buried. The other wing of 
the Democracy held that slavery might be established in the 
territories if the people wanted it. Does anybody hold that 
doctrine to-day? Dead, absolutely dead! 

*' Come down to 1864. Your party, under the lead of Tilden 
and Vallandingham, d^-xlared the experiment of war to savq 



^QQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the Union was a failure. Do you believe that doctrine to- 
day? That doctrine was shot to death by the guns of Farra- 
gut at Mobile, and driven in a tempest of fire from the valley 
of the Shenandoah by Sheridan less than a month after its 
birth at Chicago. 

''Come down to 1868. You declared the Constitutional 
Amendments revolutionary and void. Does any man on this 
floor say so to-day? If so, let him rise and declare it. 

'' Do you believe in the doctrine of the Broadhead letter of 
1 868, that the so-called Constitutional Amendments should be 
disregarded? No; the gentleman from Mississippi accepts 
the results of the war! The Democratic doctrine of 1868 
is dead ! 

*'I walk across that Democratic campaign-ground as in a 
graveyard. Under my feet resound the hollow echoes of the 
dead. There lies slavery, a black marble column at the head 
of its grave, on which I read : Died in the flames of the civil 
war; loved in its life; lamented in its death; followed to its 
bier by its only mourner, the Democratic party, but dead ! 
And here is a double grave : sacred to the memory of squat- 
ter sovereignty. Died in the campaign of i860. On the re- 
verse side : Sacred to the memory of Dred Scott and the 
Breckinridge doctrine. Both dead at the hands of Abraham 
Lincoln ! And here a monument of brimstone : Sacred to the 
memory of the rebellion: the war against it is a failure; Til- 
den et Valla?idhighavt fecerunt, A. D. 1864. Dead on the 
field of battle; shot to death by the million guns of the Repub- 
lic. The doctrine of secession ; of state sovereignty, dead. 
Expired in the flames of civil war, amid the blazing rafters of 
the Confederacy, except that the modern ^neas, fleeing out 
of the flames of that ruin, bears on his back another Anchises 
of State sovereignty, and brings it here in the person of the 
honorable gentlemen from the Appomattox district of Vir- 
ginia (Mr. Tucker). All else is dead. 

''Now, gentlemen, are you sad, are you sorry for these 
deaths? Are you not glad that secession is dead? that slavery 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^OI 

fs dead ? that squatter sovereignty is dead ? 'chat the doctrine 
of the failure of the war is dead ? Then you are glad that 
you were outvoted in i860, in 1864, in 1868 and in 1872. If 
you have tears to shed over these losses, shed them in the 
graveyard, but not in this house of living men. I know that 
many a Southern man rejoices that these issues are dead. 
The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Lamar) has clothed his 
joy with eloquence. 

*' Now, gentlemen, if you yourselves are glad that you have 
suffered defeat during the last sixteen years, will you not be 
equally glad when you suffer defeat next November? But 
pardon that remark ; I regret it : I should use no bravado. 

*'Now, gentlemen, come with me for a moment into the 
camp of the Republican party and review its career. Our 
central doctrine in i860 was that slavery should never extend 
itself over another foot of American soil. Is that doctrine 
dead ? It is folded away like a victorious banner ; its truth 
is alive for evermore on this continent. In 1864 we declared 
that we would put down the rebellion and secession. And 
that doctrine lives, and will live when the second centennial 
has arrived. Freedom — national, universal and perpetual — 
our great Constitutional Amendments, are they alive or dead ? 
Alive, thank the God that shields both liberty and the Union. 
And our national credit ! saved from the assaults of Pendle- 
ton; saved from the assaults of those who struck it later, 
rising higher and higher at home and abroad ; and only now 
in doubt lest its chief, its only enemy, the Democracy, should 
triumph in November. 

'' Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender 
its truncheon of command to the Democracy ? The gentle- 
man from Mississippi says if this were England the ministry 
would go out in twenty-four hours, with such a state of things 
as we have here. Ah, yes ! that is an ordinary case of change 
of administration. But if this were England, what would 
she have done at the end of the war ? England made ont 
such mistake as the; gentleman asks this country to make, wheii 



-Q2 Z//^^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

she threw away the achievements of the grandest man that 
ever trod her highway of power. Oliver Cromwell had over- 
thrown the throne of despotic power and had lifted his coun- 
try to a place of masterful greatness among the nations of the 
earth ; and when, after his death, his great sceptre was trans- 
ferred to a weak though not unlenial hand, his country, in a 
moment of reactionary blindness, brought back the Stuarts. 
England did not recover from this folly until, in 1689, the 
prince of Orange drove from her island the last of that weak 
and wicked line. Did she afterward repeat the blunder ?' ' 

Combating Democratic measures, as Garfield 
always has, the opportunity offered by the extra 
session of the Forty-sixth Congress was not lost. 
Concerning it, he said : 

'* Mr. Speaker, we have probably never legislated on any 
question, the influence of which reaches further, both terri- 
torially and in time, and touches more interests, more vital 
interests, than are touched by this and similar bills. No man 
can doubt that within recent years, and notably within recent 
months, the leading thinkers of the civilized world have be- 
come alarmed at the attitude of the two precious metals in re- 
lation to each other j and many leading thinkers are becoming 
clearly of the opinion that by some wise, judicious arrange.; 
ment both the precious metals must be kept in service for the 
currency of the world. And this opinion has been very rapidly : 
gaining ground within the last six months, to such an extent, 
tliat England, which for more than half a century has stoutly 
adhered to the single gold standard, is now seriously medi- 
tating how she may harness both these metals to the monetary i 
car of the world. And yet, outside of this capital, I do not 
this day know of a single great and recognized advocate of bi- 
metallic money who regards it prudent or safe for any nation 
largely to increase the coinage standard of silver coin at 
the present time beyond the limits fixed by existing laws. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^q^ 

France and the States of the Latin Union, that has long be- 
lieved in bi-metallism, maintained it against all comers, and 
have done all in their power to advocate it throughout the 
world, dare not coin a single silver coin, and have not done 
so since 1874. The most stenuous advocates of bi-metallism 
in those countries say it would be ruinous to bi-metallism for 
France or the Latin Union to coin any more silver at present. 
The remaining stock of German silver now for sale, amount- 
ing to from forty to seventy-five millions of dollars, is a stand- 
ing menace to the exchanges and silver coinage of Europe. 
One month ago the leading financial journal of London pro- 
posed that the Bank of England buy one-half of the Ger- 
man surplus and hold it five years, on condition that the 
German Government shall hold the other half off the 
market. The time is ripe for some wise and prudent 
arrangement among the nations to save silver from a dis- 
astrous break-down. 'i Yet we, who during the past two 
years have coined far more silver dollars than we ever before 
coined since the foundation of the Government ; ten times as 
many as we coined during half a century of our national life ; 
are to-day ignoring and defying the enlightened, universal 
opinion of bi-metallism, and saying that the United States, 
single-handed and alone, can enter the field and settle the 
mighty issue alone. We are justifying the old proverb, that 
'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' It is sheer mad- 
ness, Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a great stack of hay, 
that had been floated out into the wild, overflowed stream of 
a river, with its stack-pen and foundations still holding to- 
gether, but ready to be wrecked. For a little while the ani- 
mal appeared to be perfectly happy. His hay-stack was 
there, and the pen around it, and he seemed to think the 
world bright and his happiness secure, while the sunshine fell 
softly on his head and hay. But by and by he began to dis- 
cover that the house and the barn, and their surroundings, 
were not all there, as they were when he went 10 sleep the 
night before ; and he began to see that he could not com- 



^04 ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

mand all the prospect and peacefully dominate the scene as 
he had done before. So with this House. AVe assume to 
manage this mighty question, which has been launched on the 
wild current that sweeps over the whole world, and we bark 
from our legislative hay-stacks as though we commanded the 
whole world. In the name of common sense and sanity, 
let us take some account of the flood ; let us understand 
that a deluge means something, and try, if we can, to get 
our bearings before we undertake to settle the affairs of all 
mankind by a vote of this House. To-day we are coining 
one-third of all the silver that is being coined in the round 
world. China is coining another third ; and all other nations 
are using the remaining one-third for subsidiary coin. And 
if we want to take rank with China and part company with 
all of the civilized nations of the Western world, let us pass 
this bill, and then 'bay the moon,' as we float down the 
whirling channel to take our place among the silver mono- 
metallists of Asia. ^ 

''Mr. Chairman, the dogma of State Sovereignty, which has 
re-awakened to such vigorous life in this chamber, has .borne 
such bitter fruits, and entailed such suffering upon our people, 
that it deserves more particular notice. It should be noticed 
that the word ' Sovereignty ' cannot be fitly applied to any 
government in this country. It is not found in our Constitu- 
tion. It is a feudal word, born of the despotism of the mid- 
dle ages, and was unknown even in imperial Rome. A 
' Sovereign ' is a person, a prince who has subjects that owe 
him allegiance. There is no one paramount sovereign in the 
United States. There is no person here who holds any title : 
or authority whatever, except the official authority given him t 
by law. Americans are not subjects, but citizens. Our only 
sovereign is the whole people. To talk about the * inherent l| 
sovereignty ' of a corporation — an artificial person — is to talk i 
nonsense ; and we ought to reform our habit of speech on that 
subject. But what do gentlemen mean when they tell us that 
a State is sovereign ? What does sovereignty mean, in its ac- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^^ 

cepted use, but a political corporation having no superior? 
Is a State of this Union such a corporation ? Let us test it by 
a few examples drawn from the Constitution. No State of 
this Union can make war or conclude a peace. Without the 
consent of Congress it cannot raise or support an army or a 
navy. It cannot make a treaty v/ith a foreign power, nor 
enter into any agreement or compact with another State. It 
cannot levy imposts or duties on imports or exports. It can^ 
not coin money. It cannot regulate commerce. It cannot 
authorize a single ship to go into commission anywhere on 
the high seas j if it should, that ship would be seized as a 
pirate or confiscated by the laws of the United States. A 
State cannot emit bills of credit. It can enact no law which 
makes anything but gold and silver a legal tender. It has no 
flag except the flag of the Union. And there are many other 
subjects on which the States are forbidden by the Constitution 
to legislate. How much inherent sovereignty is left in a cor- 
poration which is thus shorn of all these great attributes of 
sovereignty ? But this is not all. The Supreme Court of the 
United States may declare null and void any law, or any 
clause of the Constitution of a State, which happens to be in 
conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
Again, the States appear as plaintiffs and defendants before 
the Supreme Court of the United States. They may sue each 
other ; and until the Eleventh Amendment was adopted a 
citizen might sue a State. These ' sovereigns ' may all be 
summoned before their common superior to be judged. And 
yet they are endowed with supreme inherent sovereignty? 
Again, the government of a State may be absolutely abolished 
by Congress, in case it is not republican in form. 

''And finally^ to cap the climax of this absurd pretension, 
every right possessed by one of these 'sovereign ' States, every 
inherent sovereign right, except the single right to equal rep- 
resentation in the Senate, m.ay be taken away, witliout its con- 
sent, by the vote of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths 
of the States. But, in spite of all these disabilities, we hear 

i8 



3o6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



them paraded as independent, sovereign States, the creators 
of the Union and the dictators of its poAvers. How inhe- 
rently * sovereign' must be tliat State west of the Mississippi, 
which the nation bought and paid for with the public money, 
and permitted to come into the Union a half century after 
the Constitution was adopted ! And yet we are told that 
States are inherently sovereign, and create the national 
government. Haifa century ago, this heresy threatened the 
stability of the nation. The eloquence of Webster and his 
compeers, and the patriotism and high courage of Andrew 
Jackson, resisted and for a time destroyed its powers ; but it 
continued to live as the evil genius, the incarnate devil, of 
America; and, in 1861, it was the fatal phantom that lured 
eleven millions of t)ur people into rebellion against their Gov- 
ernment. Hundreds of thousands of those who took up arms 
against the Union, stubbornly resisted all inducements to that 
fatal step until they were summoned by the authority of their 
States." 

A single bold passage (were it possible, we 
would give in full,) from his speech on counting 
the electoral vote must find a place here : 

''When you tell me that civil war is threatened by any party 
or State in this Republic, you have given me a supreme reason 
why an American Congress should refuse, with unutterable 
scorn, to listen to those who threaten, or do any act whatever 
imder the coercion of threats by any power on earth. With 
all my soul, I despise your threat of civil war, come it from 
what quarter or what it may. Brave men, certainly a brave 
nation, will do nothing under such compulsion. We are in- 
trusted with the work of obeying and defending the Constitu- 
tion. I will not be deterred from obeying it, because some- 
body threatens to destroy it. I dismiss all that class of mo- 
tives as unworthy of Americans. 

''What, then, are the grounds on which wfj should con' 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



307 



sider a bill like this? It would be unbecoming in me or in 
any member of this Congress to oppose this bill on mere 
technical or trifling grounds. It should be opposed, if at all, 
for reasons so broad, so weighty as to overcome all that has 
been said in its favor, and all the advantages which I have 
here admitted, may follow from its passage. I do not wish 
to diminish the stature of my antagonist ; I do not wish to 
undervalue the points of strength in a measure, before I ques- 
tion its propriety. It is not enough that this bill will tide us 
over a present danger, however great. , Let us for a moment 
forget Hayes and Tilden, Republicans and Democrats ; let us 
forget our own epoch and our own generations ; and, enter- 
ing a broader field, inquire how this thing which we are 
about to do will affect the great future of t)ur Republic ; and, 
in what condition, if we pass this bill, we shall transmit our 
institutions to those who shall come after us. The present 
good which we shall achieve by it may be very great ; yet if 
the evils that will flow from it in the future must be greater, 
it would be base in us to flinch from trouble by entailing 
remediless evils upon our children." 

President Garfield's position on the Chinese 
Question, is not stated in any speech of his, and 
only lig-htly touched upon in his letter of accept- 
ance. The WJieelmg (West Virginia) Intelli^ 
^e7icer, printed, December 5th, 1877, an account of 
an interview with the great Republican, which 
more fully elaborates his views. Alluding to the 
idea quite strongly held by many writers, that 
the Chinese intend a conquest of Europe, General 
Garfield said : 

'^Th» Mongolian race is capable of great personal prow- 
ess. Being fatalists, they dare everything for the end they 
have in view. Their food is simple, easily supplied and 



3o8 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



easily transported. Their endurance of fatigue is proverbial. 
Once organized and in motion they could swarm into Russia 
as irresistibly as the locusts of Egypt, and upon the Pacific 
coast of this continent as numerous and destructive as the 
grasshoppers. Once started, where would they stop ? Civili- 
zation would retire before them as from a plague. Look at 
the plague spots in San Francisco to-day. Nobody lives in 
them but Chinese. Nobody else can live in them. I 
have seen in a space no greater than the length and height in 
this sleeping-car bertl:^ in a Chinese tenement quarter in San 
Francisco, the home of twelve Chinaman. In that space 
they actually lived — yes, actually lived most of their time. 
There they crouched (all doubled up), and there they cooked, 
ate, slept, and, in a word, lived. They cooked with a little 
lamp a mess of stuff that they import from China, which, 
like their rice food, is very cheap, and a mere pittance in the 
way of earnings on the street, will supply them food and clothes 
for an indefinite time. A few cents per day is more to them 
than a dollar to the commonest American laborer. Hence 
the lowest grade of poor paid labor retires before them as it 
would before a pestilence. 

"This is not all. They have no assimilation whatever to 
Caucasian civilization. The negro assimilates with the Cau- 
casian. He wants all that we want. He adopts our civili- 
zation — professes our religion — works for our wages, and is a 
customer for everything that civilization produces. Hence 
(using a figure of physiology) we can take him up in the cir- 
culation of the body politic and assimilate him — make a man 
and a brother of him, as the phrase goes; but not so in the 
least degree with the Chinaman. 

"And this brmgs me to say that one of the great questions 
that now press upon Congress and the country for immediate 
attention and solution, is what shall we do with reference to 
Chinese immigration? We have always refused to citizenize 
them. Shall we continue the treaty under which they are 
immigrating to our shores?" 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



309 



Before taklnof leave of Garfield's Concrres- 
slonal career, it will doubtless please the reader to 
peruse a few of the letters our successful states- 
man wrote during his long years in and about 
the capital. The first are to Colonel Rockwell : 

" Hiram, Ohio, August 3olh, I069. 

" It seems as though each year added move to the work that falls to my 
share. This season I have the main weight of the Census Bill and the re- 
ports to carry, and the share of the Ohio campaign that falls to me, and in 
addition to all this I am running in debt and building a house in Washing- 
ton. On lookin^g over I found I had paid out over ,$5,ocxD since I first went 
to Congress, for rent alone, and all this is a dead los^; so, finding an old 
staff-officer (Maj. D. G. Swaim), I negotiated enough to enable me to get 
a lot on the corner of Thirteenth and I Streets, north, opposite to Frank- 
lin Square, and I have got a house three-quarters done. It may be a losing 
business, but I hope I shall be able to sell it when I am done with it, so as 
to save myself and the rent." 



"Hiram, Ohio, August 6th, 1870. 

"I have at last reached home in the green fields and pure air of the 
countr}', and for the first time in many months have a few days of com- 
parative rest now before the opening of the fall campaign. 

'* My work during the last Congressional year has been harder than ever 
before. I gave eighty days' hard work last summer and fall to the cen- 
sus, and, though I carried my bill successfully through the House, it failed 
in the Senate. Then I spent forty days on the Gold Panic Investigation 
and Report, nearly all the work of which I did. Then I gave three or 
four weeks' hard work to the Tariff" Bill, and more than that amount to 
the Currency Bill, which I had charge of and which created a long and 
strong combat. Add to this all the usual outside work and two cases in 
the Supreme Court, one of which I argued and won, and you will see that 
it filled my days and many of ney nights with about as close grubbing as 
I was capable of performing. On the whole I have done as much as \ 
had any reason to hope I should. 

" I was very much obliged for your discussion of the Indian Affairs, 
You can see how nearly impossible it is f«r a member of Congress, nearly 
a thousand miles away from the scene of Indian events, and knowing 
nothing but what he learns from vague and contradictory reports, to under- 
stand the real situation, and to provide wise and efficient means for mana- 
ging a subject so difficult and so impossible to handle by general laws or 
regulations. I have from the first been in favor of the transfer of the In- 
dian Bureau to the War Department; but the Piegan massacre and the 
personal quarrel of which you speak prevented the transfer. I twice got 
the bill through the House. I shall take the liberty to write to Secretary 
Cox and quote some passages from your letter." 



^jO LIF^ --^-VZ; PUBLIC CAREER OF 



xJ 



Then to Mr. B. A. Hinsdale : 

"\Va5;iiincton, May 20th, 1S79. 

" I have read your letter carefully. It is all interesting, and some ol 
your reflections and suggestions are very valuable. 1 will notice your points 
in the order you state them. 

" First. — You think my position in the first speech was greatly modified, 
if not abandoned, in the second, because, first, from the speech of March 
iiQth, the ordinary reader would get the idea that revolution comes in on the 
rider, and not in insisting upon the rider when it could not command a two- 
tliirds vote ; second, that the latter point is not mentioned at all in my first 
speech, and no intimation is made that the rider is ever legitimate. It is no 
doubt true that tlie reader of my first speech, who had not paid special at- 
tention to the transactions of Congress during the preceding month, might 
fail to understand what was plain to my hearers who had listened to the 
debate, m which the Democrats had repeatedly .stated that their reason for 
putting their independent legislation upon the appropriation bill as a rider, 
was because they were certain it would be vetoed if passed as an independ- 
ent measure, and their only hope of success was to pass no appropriation 
bills without the riders. 

" Several of tliese declarations are quoted in the President's veto of the 
Army Appropriation Bill. But I don't think that the ordinary reader can 
find anything in my first speech which implies that it is revolutionary to put 
a rider on an appropriation bill. 

" It is singular that no member of Congress who replied to me attempted 
to show, by any quotation from my speech, that I had .said so. 

" On the contrary, I think the ordinary reader will understand that I was 
discussing the refusal to vote supplies if the ridered bill should be vetoed. 

♦' Let me call your attention to the fact that, after developing, on pages 6, 
7 and 8 of the first speech, the doctrine of the voluntary powei-s of the 
j^overnment, and that the free consent of the House, the Senate, and the 
President, or two-thirds of the House and Senate against the President's 
consent is the basis of all our laws, I say at the close of page 8 : ' The 
programme announced two weeks ago wa*, that if the Senate refused to 
consent to the demands of the House, the government should itop. And 
the proposition was then, and the programme is now, that, although tlxre 
is not a Senate to be coerced, there is still a tliird independent branch in the 
legislative power of the government whose consent is to be coerced et tlie 
peril of the destniction of this government. That is, if the President, in 
the discharge of his dut>', shall exercise his plain constitutional right to r .- 
fuse his consent to this propo.sed legislation. Congress will so use its volun- 
tary powers as to destroy the government.' 

" This is the proposition which we confront, and we denounce as revolu- 
tionar)'. That is, the Democratic party in Congress, knowing it had net a 
two-thirds majority, declared that if the President refused his signature to 
their independent legislation, they would :iot vote supplies, and would let 
the government perish of inanition. ]\Iy rejTico to the questions of Mr. 
Stevens, page II, and Mr. Davis, page 14, are to the same eflcct, from the 
beginning to the end of the speech. I was discussing their propo£;ition, that 
if they could not pass their measures of independent legislation in spite of 
the President's veto — and they knew they could not — they would refuse to 
vot2 supplies. As Mr. Beck said : ' WlietJier that coun e is right or wrong, 
it mtIII be adhered to, no matter M-hat happens to the appropriation bill.' 



JAMES A. CAKJ'JELD. ^ j j 

" My theme was the proposed coercion of the President and fhe threat of 
stopping the government. 

'• i t.imk it appears from the foregoing that I did not call riders revolu- 
tionary. I said nothing about tlie legitimacy of riders, because that was not 
my theme. 

" Second. — You think, first, that I used the word revolution in a loose 
stump-speech sense, and not in the more serious sense in which statesmen 
should employ it ; second, and you see nothing in the state of the public 
mmd outside of Congress to indicate any general concurrence in my opinion 
that revolution was threatened. I know the word is sometimes loosely used 
in reference to changes of a quiet sort. We say, for example, there has 
been a revolution in the common-school system, I do not think I am open 
to the charge of using it either in the stump-speech or in the milder sense 
ju.-t referred to. Certainly we had a revolution in i86i ; but before we 
came to blows the revolution was prepared by the attempt of the South to 
put in force the doctrine tliat a State v/as sovereign and had a right to secede 
from the Union. To put that doctrine in practice was to destroy tlie gov- 
ernment, and dissolution was revolution. 

" Now, the Democratic programme, as announced by Thurman, Beck, 
and the rest, is that, whatever may be the consequence, they will not vote 
supplies unless certain laws are repealed ; and, not having tlie constitu- 
tional power to repeal those laws, they have tlnis far refused to vote sup- 
plies. Continued persistence in that refusal destroys the government. I 
denounce their policy and purpose as threatened revolution. If that which 
inevitably destroys the government be not revolution, in the largest and 
most dangerous sense of that word, I am wholly mistaken. 

" You say you do not see signs of revolution in tl:e country : nor do I. 
I saw it only in Congress. The title of my speech was ' Revolution in 
Congress,' and I resisted it there in order that it might not spread and be- 
come revolution throughout the whole Union, I do not now believe it 
will ripen into completed revolution, because the purposes of the Democracy 
having been disclosed, public opinion will break them down. I think my 
speech has done something toward breaking them down by disclosing their 
purposes. The responses of the countiy before I made my second speech 
greatly relieved my apprehensions, and I felt less for the result April 4th 
than I did March 29th, though the Democracy had not abandoned their 
scheme, nor have they done so yet. 

" Third. — Your analysis of the elements tliat make up the spirit of tlie 
Republican party is certainly just m tlie mam. It would not be possible 
for any party to be the chief actor in the events of the past twenty-five years 
without being influenced by the spirit of the events themselves. Our recent 
liistory has developed a war-horse type of Republican which I agree with 
you in despising as a permanent element ; but I do not agree with you that 
the present agitation is an outcome on the part of Repul)llcans to get up a 
new cry. We do not get up the cry, we do not bring in this new issue. 
jNIy analysis of the situation is thio : Two Democratic leaders, Tildcn and 
Thurman, are engaged in a desperate struggle for the next Presidency. 
Tildcn hopes to ht elected on the reminiscences of 1876. The Potter Com- 
mittee was appointed to infuse the belief that Tilden had been counted out 
by fraud. Tilden had been gaining ground as a candidate, and if Thurman 
merely joined in this cry of fraud, he carried coals to Tilden's cellar and 
did n®t iielp liimself. He therefore raised a new issue to rally the party 



^j2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

around him. His cry was : * No militaiy interference with elections ! 
• Down with the bayonet at the polls !' ' Dov^-n with national interference 
with elections 1' I'he only way tha,t h.e and his associates could elevate 
this issue into prominence was by threatening to stop tlie governmi-nt if his 
aggravations are not redressed. Not to have resisted this scheme would 
have been criminal on our part. It is true that in resisting it the war-horse 
type of Republican has found new employment, and many of the undesira- 
ble elements of our party are delighted that this issue has been raised. This 
could not be otherwise; but it is not just to say that Republicans have 
raised the issue to feed their taste for gore. 

" I note, with great interest, what you say about the recent history of my 
mind and the effect of stump-speaking upon my modes of thinking. I have 
no doubt tiiat it induces a looseness and superficiality of thought and an 
extravagance of expression ; but, on the other hand, it has some compensa- 
tions. A man addressing a great and mixed audience, composed of friends 
and enemies, is certainly impelled to be more careful in his statements of facts 
than one who has his audience all to liimself. lie is much less liable to 
become cpigrammatical and self-confident in his ov/n views than those who 
have a friendly audience, where nobody opposes or puts questions. I 
should be grieved indeed if I felt that political speaking was weakening my 
love of study and reflection in other directions. I thank you for the sug- 
gestions, and shall keep watch of myself all the more in consequence of 
thera. But it occurs to me I have made more speeches of the kind you 
approve within the last six months than of the kind you disapprove. For 
example, the Henry speech, the speech on the Relation of the Government 
to Science, the Sugar TarilT speech, the speech on Mr, Schleicher, the 
Chicago speech, and the two articles in the Xcrih American RcvirdJ.''' 



"Washington, July 7th, 1S79. 

"The session has been a most uncomfortable one; but, on the whole, it 
has been valuable in the new class of topics it has brought into discussion. 
The Democrats completely abandoned the main ground which they at first 
took, and the most sensible among them do not hesitate to admit privately 
that it was wholly untenable. Instead of withholduig $45,000,000 of 
appropriations to compel tlie redress of grievances, they withheld only 
$600,000, and they did not carry as many points of legislation as were 
tendered them at the close of the last Congress. The couree of justice can 
only be kept by the marshals advancing the necessar)' money, and run the 
•risk of Congress paying tliem hereafter ; but their powers and official au- 
thority are not impaired. * * * 

" Partywise, the extra session has united the Republicans more than any 
thing since 1868, and it bids fair to give us iSSo," 



I 




Gen. GARFIELD'S Home, Mentor, Ohio. 



i 



( 



, ! 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ t -> 

his title, in tlis estimation of inany men, but the behavior of a t^cat nation 
in tlie administration of its laws at a critical moment is mere important than 
the fate of any one man or party. We have reached the place where the 
road is marked by no footprint, and we must make a direct line to be fit to 
follow after we are dead. It is only at such times that the domain of law 
is enlarged and the safeguard of liberty is increased. I confess to you that 
I do not feel adequate to the task; but I shall do my best to point out a 
worthy way to the light and the right." 

"Washington, March loth, 1877. 
" It is due to Hayes tliat we stand Ijy liim and give his policy a fair trial. 
I understand he wants me to stay in the House. I shall see him this even- 
ing, and if he is decided in his wishes on that point, I slrall probably de- 
cline to be a candidate for the Senate. On many accounts I would like to 
take that place, but it seems to fall to my lot to make the sacrifice. It is 
probable, though not ccrtam, that I could be elected if I ran." 



., A LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

3^4 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



A VISIT TO LAWNFIELD. 



T is essential that the reader should take a 
quick glance at President Garfield's home — 
for the White House is but his visiting place 
— and to do that I must be^r him to come with me 
to Lawnfield on a visit that the author paid to 
General Garfield durino^ the summer of 1880. 
In this way the reader can obtain an essentially 
necessar}^ knowledge of the President as a man ; 
on that side of his life, the domestic, which reveals 
him one of the noblest of the people. 

The station at which I got out was Mentor, 
twenty-six miles from Cleveland, on the Lake 
Shore and Michicran Southern Railroad. The 
drive to the house was over a flat country, which 
had evidently once been overflowed, and a part of 
the botttom of the lake — distant about two miles. 
It was Mentor all along, not a regular town but a 
thickly settled neighborhood. There were houses 
every hundred rods or so, and little farms, 
orchards and orarclcns around them. The Gen- 

o 

cral, as Garfield Vv^as called, was the big man of 
the place, and owned one hundred and sixty acres 
of land. While drivincr alon^f the Mentor road 
one day in 1S77, he observed the quiet country 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



31J 



beauty of the place, and thought he would hke to 
live there. He bought one hundred and twenty 
acres, and afterward added forty. There was a 
cottap-e on the o-round, and It made a very com- 
fortable home for the family until the general went 
to Washlnofton, when he ordered It removed and 
a better building put in Its place. 

Such a home at best Is but a slight affair when 
viewed from the palatial magnificence of a Fifth 
Avenue, and probably many a politician would 
consider General Garheld's house no house at all. 
But It was and Is all sufficient for the needs of the 
first Republican of his time, who, I venture to say, 
Is far more at home at Mentor than ever he will 
be In the White House. 

We soon arrived at Lawnfield, and I went to a 
little office just behind the liouse, though In view, 
and Inquired for the general. 

"He's out on the farm," replied one of the two 
secretaries busy at work writing, "I v/IU go and 
find him." 

During the minute the secretary was absent I 
examined the house with my eyes. It was two 
and a half stories high and In an unfinished state. 
The walls were painted white and relieved by a 
roof of a dark Turkish red. The lawn about was 
iliberally dotted with fruit trees. In the spreading 
'branches of one of which — a cherry — a boy was 
busy plucking the luscious fruit. Several girls 
^clustered beneath sharing the work and the re- 



3i6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



freshment. A double row of noble elms was in 
front of the house Not far off I noticed goose- 
berry and currant bushes, betokening a garden, * 
and just back of the house beyond the office a 
commodious-looking barn. 

Subsequently I learned other particulars. 

The cottage that stood upon the place when 
the general purchased it proved altogether too 
small and too barren of conveniences. A Cleve- 
land architect was employed for the metamor- 
phosis. He decided that the walls could be raised 
and the building enlarged without pulling It down. 
It was then rebuilt from plans prepared by Mrs. 
Garfield, that is, in this way: A sketch was first 
drawn by the architect; this Mrs. Garfield filled 
out and then the general marked in various direc 
tions with a bold pen. When the ideas of Mrs. 
Garfield had been put upon paper the general 
indorsed them in the following gende hint to the 
builders: 

''These plans must stand as above, unless otherwise 
ordered hereafter. If any part of them is impracticable, in- 
form me soon and suggest change. 

''J. A. Garfield. 

''Washington, March 6th, iSSo." 

The house stands upon a crest or ridge and 
cannot be called grand in any sense of the word, 
but certainly deserves the name of a very pleas- 
ant, comfortable-looking country home. The ar- 



/ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



19 



chitecture Is composite, the Gothic sentiment pre- 
valhno-. There are two dormer windows — one in 
front and one in the rear — and a broad veranda 
extends across the front and part of the side 
toward Cleveland, affording opportunities to enjoy 
the breezes, out of the heat of the sun. Lattice 
work has been arranged for trailing vines. The 
dimensions are sixty feet front by fifty deep. The 
apartments are all roomy for a country house 
and the hallway is so wide that it attracts atten- 
tion the moment you enter. The first floor contains 
a hall, with a large writing-table, a sitting-room, 
parlor, dining-room, kitchen, wash-room and pan- 
try. This last on the plan bears the generous 
indorsement "plenty of shelves and drawers." 
Up-stairs in the rear part of the second floor is a 
room that on the plan is entitled "snuggery for 
general." It is rather small, measuring only thir- 
teen and a half by fourteen feet. It is filled up 
with book shelves, but it is not intended to usurp 
the place of the library, a separate building out- 
side and to the north-east of the house. Two of 
Ithe best apartments in the eastern and front part 
I Ion this floor are especially filled up for occupancy 
Mof the general's mother. The front room has a 
large old-fashioned fire-place and the greatest 
' ipains have evidently been taken to make this 
room a Mecca of comfort. 

The rooms are finished in hard woods, and 
leveiything about the place, while plain and un- 



,20 ^^^^ -^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

pretentious, gives it an appearance of quiet com- 
fort. There are very few of the timbers of the 
old house, over which the new has been con- 
structed, visible at this time, and there will be 
none in sight when the carpets are laid down. 
The cost of the structure when finished will be 
between three thousand five hundred and four 
thousand dollars. The barn, at the rear, furnishes 
accommodations for the two carriage-horses, the 
single carriage-horse and the heavy working", 
team. Of the one hundred and sixty acres com- 
prising the farm, the yard, garden and orchard 
take up about twelve. Some seventy acres are 
under tillage, and the rest are in pasture and 
woodland. 

About ten minutes slipped away, and then the 
tall, broad-shouldered, full-chested, strongly-knit, 
six-foot-two-inch form of Garfield came out from 
between the buildings. Two telegraph men were 
with him, and they were arranging for putting a 
private wire into his office. With that charming, 
unpretentious politeness for which he is distin- 
cruished, he asked me to go to the front of the 
nouse and sit on the broad veranda, where he 
said we would find it much cooler and pleasanter 
than within doors. While he sat on the porch, I 
had a good opportunity to read and study the 
man. His head is massive as well as his frame, 
and his brain is gigantic. He has light brown 
hair, reddish-brown beard, large blue eyes and a 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



321 



full, round, fair face. His weight Is, perhaps, two 
hundred and forty pounds. He dresses plainly 
and prefers to wear a soft, slouch hat, with a 
broad brim. 

Visitors who come unannounced, often find him 
working in the hay-field with his boys, with his 
genial face sheltered from the sun under a big, 
chip hat, and his trousers tucked In a pair of cow- 
hide boots. He Is a thorough countryman, by in- 
stinct. The smell of the good, brown earth, the 
lowing of cattle, the perfume of the new cut hay 
and all the slehts and sounds of farm-life are dear 
to him from early associations. 

He excused himself for a moment: the tele- 
graph men needed some advice. As I sat there, I 
recalled some of the many things concerning the 
man that had been told me during the last day or 
two. 

I could easily appreciate, seated on his veran- 
da, all I had heard about his fondness for the 
country ; being, as I saw him to be, essentially a 
home man, and, perhaps, he has never quite ap- 
preciated the possession of a home so much as he 
does now, in his days of rest, after the bustle and 
excitement of the past few weeks. His habits, I 
am told, are regular and methodical. Rising early, 
he frequently mounts his horse and goes over the 
farm, directing the workmen and studying out 
what suggests Itself as a needed Improvement. 
Quite as often, instead of mounting his horse, he 



-^2 2 Z//Z" AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

walks about the place and, if the fever seizes him, 
jerks off his coat to hold the plow In the furrow, 
or to rake hay. It reminds him of old times, and 
is, oi Itself, invigorating exercise. He has a great 
taste for improvements, and has made something 
of a study of farming since his early experience 
as a practical yeoman. He farms, therefore, sci- 
entifically. He interests himself in the affairs of 
the village, and attends the Disciples' Church, 
where he sometimes speaks. The liberal people 
of Mentor on one occasion invited him to say 
something about the formation of a Murphy Tem- 
perance Society. They were much pleased v/hen, 
in his earnest, impressive way, he told them he was 
not a believer in total abstinence, while cautioning 
the young against the evil of immoderate drink- 
ing, and earnestly urging them to check and con- 
trol their appetite. 

Garfield was fond of showing visitors over the 
place, and especially fond of taking themi down the 
lane back of the house to the top of the ridge, and 
explaining that the flat space below was once a 
portion of Lake Erie before the blue waters re-j 
ceded and left the sand and wave-washed pebbles' 
on the top of the ridge. 

He is a hard worker, and punctual In perform 
ance of promises and duty. One infallible rule of 
his public life has been that every civil letter, on 
whatever subject or from whatever source, de-j 
mands an answer. His correspondence has, there-j 



o 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^23 

fore, always been large and exacting. The very 
morning of my arrival ninety letters and over two 
hundred papers were brought to the house, and 
before night there were as many more. He han- 
dles them, however, with ease, for he is possessed 
with what William Wirt entided the " genius of 
labor." There are few men living, or who ever 
lived, that can or could endure more mental work 
than he, and do good work. As a collegian, 
twenty hours without sleep was common with him, 
and not one of the twenty but had its stated task 
of work or recreation. This, mind you, Is all done 
thoroughly. His work on the Fitz John Porter 
case Involved immense labor, and the references 
and documents relative to that case, piled apart in 
his library, at Washington, are appalling to a mind 
of ordinary grasp. It takes all of one large closet 
to contain the letters received and answers sent 
about this case, which, with the multitude of docu- 
ments, were personally examined by the general. 

Most of the letters received on the morning of 
my visit, to which I have referred, were letters of 
congratulation, but there were also requests for 
offices in the event of an election, requests for 
everything, from the delicately-hinted desire of a 
seat In the new cabinet to an openly-demanded 
place as a country postmaster. Others were 
recommendations for some of those who asked, 
who appeared, indeed, to be fit for anything ever 
heard of beneath the broad panoply of heaven, 



324 ^^^^ ^^-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

and still others were full of political advice and 
suggestions. 

His work on the Fitz John Porter case recalled 
again his giant-like capacity for mental labor. 
But few, in comparison to the number delivered, 
of his congressional speeches, have obtained wide 
circulation In print. And yet, just look at the 
titles of those that have so appeared and been cir- 
culated : 

*'Free Commerce between the States;" "Na- 
tional Bureau of Education;" "The Public Debt 
and Specie Payments;" "Taxation of United States 
Bonds;" "Ninth Census;" "Public Expenditures 
and Civil Service;" "The Tariff;" "Currency and 
the Banks;" "Debate on the Currency Bill;" "On 
the McGarrahan Claim;" "The Right to Originate 
Revenue Bills;" Public Expenditures;" "National 
Aid to Education;" "The Currency;" "Revenues 
and Expenditures;" "Currency and the Public 
Faith;" "Appropriations;" "Counting the Elec- 
toral Vote;" "Repeal of the Resumption Law;" 
"The New Scheme of American Finance;" "The 
Tariff;" "Suspension and Resumption of Specie 
Payments;" "Relation. of the National Government 
to Science," "Sugar Tariff." 

What a record this is, even If It stood alone l 
What American statesman can show a better list 
of titles ? Does it not read like a table of con- 
tents to the speeches of Daniel Webster? And 
these speeches could not have been prepared with- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. .-s^r 

out ability, knowledge and the intent of a states- 
man who works for his country's good to animate 
their purpose. 

They were the results of his deliberate and ac- 
curate foresight. For he saw, when the war was 
over and reconstruction a fact, that American poli- 
tics were entering upon a new era. No man 
could then serve the nation by rehearsing the old 
anti-slavery debates, by fighting over the battles 
of the war on the floors of Congress, by unduly 
prolonging controversies that were forever settled. 
He saw that what the country needed was wise 
discussion and legislation on the civil service, the 
revenue, currency, banking, resumption and the 
hundred other questions that are by no means 
sentimental, that do not appear to the imagina- 
tion, but are dry, statistical, unpoetic and distaste- 
ful to any speaker who has the God-given gift of 
eloquence. In a noble speech on the currency, 
delivered in 1868, Garfield said: 

" I am aware that financial subjects are dull and uninviting 
in comparison with those heroic themes which have absorbed 
the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn 
from the consideration of armies and navies, victories and de- 
feats, to the array of figures which exhibits the debt, expendi- 
ture, taxation and industry of the nation, requires no little 
courage and self-denial ; but to these questions we must come, 
and to their solution Congress, political parties and all 
thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years 
to come." 



19 



32 6 ^^-^^ ^^^^-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

One would not suppose that, In the midst of the 
busy life incidental to such public duties as are 
lightly suggested above, and, later, the political 
leadership of the House, General Garfield found 
rmuch time to devote to society and literature, yet 
lie has for a long period been an active and 
honored member of the Washington Literary So- 
ciety, an organization embracing the most promi- 
nent men and women In music, art and literature 
of the national capital. He is usually present at 
their meetings, and takes an earnest yet modest 
part in their discussions. During the last season 
he was president of the society, and entertained 
the members at his house. He was usually acrl 
companied by his wife, who has always been his 
companion, counselor and friend. 

His love of literature was early manifested, re- 
ceived a great Impulse while at Williams' College, 
and grew steadily while professor of languages 
and president of Hiram College. Even now his 
most congenial recreation Is the study of classical 
literature, and It Is related of him that durlnor the 
busy session he was found behind a big barricade 
of books, which proved upon examination to be 
different editions of Horace, and works reIatin'->- to 
'that poet. "I find I'am overworked, and need 
recreation," he said. *' Now, my theory is that the 
best way to rest the mind Is not to let It lie idle, 
but to put it at something quite outside the ordi- 
nary line of employment. So, I am resting by 



i 



JAMES A. GARFJEL4D. 



32: 



learning" all the Congressional Library can show 
about Horace, and the various editions and trans 
lations of his poems." And an application of this 
theory to his every-day life has made him a 
student, and ripened a scholarship rare among 
public men. The record of the Congressional 
Library shows that he uses more books than any 
member of Congress. The number of volumes 
taken from the library last year and read and ex- 
amined by him, has never been exceeded by any 
man who ever used the library except Charles 
Sumner. He reads ever^^thing — histories, novels, 
newspapers, etc., and a wide range of misceb 
laneous matter. Outside of the early classics, 
Shakespeare is his favorite poet, and Tennyson Is 
oftener in his hand than any other song-writer of 
modern times. His novel reading is a peculiarly 
happy illustration of his character, as It is, so to 
speak, confined to Thackeray, Scott, Dickens, 
Kingsley, Jane Austen and Honor^ de Balzac. 
His books all bear his library motto: "Inter 
Folia Fructus," " Fruit between leaves." 

Here he has read and worked much the same 
as at Washington, indeed everywhere. What a 
reader these desultory letters from Mr. Hinsdale's 
orrespondence show him to be ! 



.c 



"Washington, D. C, February 14th, 1875. 

" I don't remember whether I have ever called your attention to a book 
which has given me a great deal of pleasure, and which I think is an ad- 
mirable help to young people in laying the foundation of a knowledge of 
Shakespeare. You may be familiar with it, but I never saw it until this 
winter. It is Shakespeare written in a condensed and attractive fonn, by 



328 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Charles and Mary Lr.mb, and published in Bohn's Library. It gives but 
eighteen pages to each play, and puts the story in so plain a way that a 
very young child can understand it. The volume contains sketches of 
about half of the plays. About twice a week I read one of these stories to 
the children, and even Mollie gets a pretty fair understanding of the story. 
Not only this, but they give older and much clearer notions of the plot of 
the play than the reading of the whole play ordinarily gives. 

" So far as individual work is concerned, I have done something to keep 
alive my tastes and habits. For example, since I left you I have made a 
somewhat thorough study of Goethe and his epoch, and have sought to 
build up in my mind a picture of the state of literature and art in Europe, 
at the period when Goethe began to work, and the state when he died. I 
have grouped the various facts into order, have written them out, so as to 
preserve a memoir of the impression made upon my mind by the whole. 
The sketch covers nearly sixty pages of manuscript. I think some work of 
this kind outside the track of one's e very-day work is necessary to keep up 
real growth." 

" Washington, July 8th, 1875. 
*' I am taking advantage of this enforced leisure to do a good deal of 
reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the following : Sherman's 
two volumes ; Leland's ' English Gipsies ;' George Borrow's ' Gipsies of 
Spain ;' Borrow's * Rommany Rye ;' Tennyson's * Mary ;' seven volumes of 
Froude's England ; several plays of Shakespeare, and have made some 
progress in a new book, which I think you will be glad to see, ' The His- 
tory of the English People,' by Prof. Green, of Oxford, in one volume." 



" Washington, October 22d, 1877. 
" Since receiving your postal card I have read Goldwin Smith's essay on 
the Decline of Party Government. To me it is altogether a disappointing 
paper. Many of his facts and suggestions are interesting, but his sugges- 
tions of substitution for party government'are too vague to be of any value, 
while there are grave differences of opinion among men on questions of vital 
importance, whether in church or state, in social life or in science. There 
will be parties based upon those conditions, and the thing most desired is 
not how to avoid the existence ^^f parties, but how to keep them within 
proper bounds." 

"Mentor, Ohio, November i6th, 1878. 
" I have read with great interest and satisfaction your little volume on 
the Christian Jewish Church. I know of no work which contains within 
such small compass so complete and thorough a discussion of the subject. 
Your analysis of the early struggle between the Jewish and Greek Chris- 
tians, and the peculiar influences of the Jewish and Greek mind upon the 
historical development or Christianity throws a strong and clear light upon 
numy portions of the New Testament, and affords valuable assistance to the 
study of church history. The whole book is pervaded with the spirit of 
thorough and reverent scholarship, and you deserve, and doubtless will re- 
ceive, Uk gratitude of a wide circle of readers," 




Mrs. Garfield— the president's wife. 



^AMES A. GARFIELD, 



329 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE FAMILY CIRCLE. 



MY recollections were here Interrupted by 
the general, who came to excuse him- 
self, saying that the telegraph men would 
be done with him in a few minutes, when he would 
be at my service. 

Just as he had arranged where and how the 
wire was to be put in, an old friend of his arrived 
and wished to talk with him. I told him to go on, 
as my business could wait. About an hour was so 
taken up, during which I collated something — I 
had learned about his Washington residence. 

This, a modest, unpretentious brick mansion, 
plain and square built, stands, as I have said, on 
the corner of I and Thirteenth Streets. The 
house is square, with a wing on the east side, 
comprising dining-room and library. The parlor 
side-windows look out upon the pleasing prospect 
of the park, while the front commands a corner 
view of I and Thirteenth Streets. 

On entering on the south side, the parlor is on 
the left. It is small, comfortably, but by no means 
lavishly furnished. An upright piano, a slate 
mantel, a solemn-looking pair of Chinese vases, 
three feet hia;h ; a tall, narrow mirror, reaching 



o^O Z/i^^^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

almost to the ceiling, are the objects your eye first 
rests upon. Then you note that the ceiling, as 
well as the walls, Is frescoed, the latter in indis- 
tinct panels, the ceiling light, with gilt borders. 
Just over the grand piano hangs a picture of Gen- 
eral Garfield's mother, to whom he is most devoted. 
The face is small, and beams benevolently from a 
snowy cap. Opposite hangs a portrait of the gen- 
eral's first daughter, a face of surpassing sweet- 
ness. Two landscapes — a farm and a mountain 
subject — count two more on the walls, and under 
one of them hangs a photograph of the general in 
camp, taken surrounded by his officers, who, like 
himself, are in undress uniform. A few choice en- 
gravings complete the wall decorations. 

To the right you are tantalizingly invited to 
enter and rest by the comfortable, cozy look of a 
small sitting-room, furnished in tasteful modesty. 
A small walnut mirror-mounted desk, table and 
whatnot, monopolizes one corner, and this is 
strewn with books that make, to their owner, life 
worth living. 

In the rear of this, and occupying a portion of 
die wing is a somewhat luxurious dining-room, 
that is, it is luxurious in color and decoration. 
The paper is a rich drab and brown, set off by a 
dado of Japanese pattern. Over the mantel there 
hangs a relic of an idea, a half portrayed inspira- 
tion. The general one evening, in the. company 
of some literary and artistic men, in the course of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ ^ j 

a discussion on Shakespeare, remarked that none 
of the illustrations by Falstaff satisfied his concep- 
tion. An artist present begged him to describe 
his ideal, and from the description then given at- 
tempted the picture now hanging over the mantel. 
The artist dying before It was completed, the half- 
finished sketch was framed by the general and 
placed where it now Is. The finished portion em- 
braces the figure of the rollicking knight leaning 
his right arm on the inn table, and balancing in 
his left hand an empty glass. In the background the 
"drawer" Is bringing in a fresh cup of sack. The 
conception Is quite effective even in Its present 
state. On the opposite wall is a large painting 
of a hunting scene, with horses and slain deer in 
the foreground. Here Is a trout very cleverly 
painted, there a walnut sideboard, and yonder 
another book-case filled to bursting. Over it is 
a copy of "Love or Duty." Much of the furni- 
ture of this room is of Austrian bent wood. 

The particular shrine in the Garfield home to 
which you will willingly hasten your steps is the 
library, situated just over the dining-room. This 
is the man of energy's workshop. It is here the 
student and the scholar lives. It Is here the poli- 
tician rests. The room is about twenty-five feet 
by fourteen feet, three of Its windows open on I 
Street and one on the eastern side. The carpet 
does not entirely cover the floor, a three-foot mar- 
gin of stained wood is visible all round. Occupy- 



332 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



ing the centre is a double walnut office desk, with 
the addition of pigeon-holes, and boxes, and 
drawers on one end, while just above hangs a 
heavy chandelier. It is very evident from the or- 
derly disorder of the room that the owner cares 
far more for immediate convenience than general 
symmetry. Half a dozen book-cases occupy the 
available space around the walls, and three thou- 
sand volumes fill their shelves. No two of these 
cases are of the same height, width or make. It 
suggests to the visitor, that from time to time, as 
the books overflowed their limits, another case 
was hastily procured In which to accommodate the 
surplus, and then when that was full another was 
added, and so on. And, undoubtedly, the over- 
flow has been regular, as you can go nowhere In 
the general's home without coming face to face 
with books. They confront you in the hall when 
you enter. In the parlor and the sitting-room. In 
the dining-room and even In the bath-room, where 
documents and speeches are corded up like fire- 
wood. And what is a wonderful point In their 
owners favor, there Is not one trashy volume 
among them. They are law, history, biography, 
poetry, politics, philosophy, government and stand- 
ard works of all sorts, the accumulation of 
years of study and the patient research of the 
scholar. 

A few pictures catch the eye for a moment : a 
portrait of Bismark, a gift from the Iron Count — 



JAMES A. GARl-IELD. - ^ ^ 

deretsejme G^^af- — himself; one of General Thomas, 
whom Garfield always loved; one of General Sher- 
man, and also Professor Agasslz and President 
Hopkins, personal friends. 

It Is in this home that he has carried on his 
correspondence with his friends, and here he 
has received many of his acquaintances. The 
leading officers of the army are his more particular 
friends, General Sherman notably so. He still 
keeps up a tender friendship for his old com- 
mander, Rosecrans. The late S. P. Chase was a firm 
friend of his and was often his euest. Amone 
his correspondents the late Dr. Francis Leiber was 
one of the favored, as he received during his life- 
time one hundred and seven letters from the 
general. Among those who have corresponded 
with him regularly are William D Howells, Pro- 
fessor Winchell, of Ann Harbor, and Andrew D. 
White, President of Cornell University, and at 
present American Minister to Berlin. Professor 
Hinsdale, of Hiram, Is also one of the regular 
correspondents, and to him we are indebted for 
many of the letters scattered through this volume. 
To him Garfield has confided much of his private 
jife. A letter Illustrating this is before me : 

"Washington, October 14th, 1865. 
" I have read the history and philosophy of the Tariff question very 
ihoroughly, though I have not yet finished it. When I see you I want to 
:ive you the salient points in the history of British commercial policy; it is 
ery curious and interesting. * * * 

" In the literary way I have fallen upon one of the finest things I have 
fver met. It is Walter Savage Landor's * Pericles and Aspasia,' which gives 



2^^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

in the most vivid and beautiful style the best summary I have ever seen ol 
the spirit and character of Greek histor)- , politics, philosophy and literature. 
It has been a very rich treat to us all. We are yet in the midst of it " 

I asked him concerning his earlier sermons or 
religious lectures, about which I had often heard 
scraps of rumors, but nothing authentic, nothing 
that told me how he preached. 

"I have no copies," he replied. "I did not write 
my discourses In full, but merely made headings 
or memoranda, trusting to memory and the In-^ 
splratlon of the occasion to fill them out properly" 
I have over a thousand of these briefs, but It 
would be quite as difficult to fill one out as to 
write a new discourse." 

He then brought in a number of scrap-books, 
in which he had preserved in the order in which 
they had been delivered, all of his public speeches. 
He also had a most elaborate Index to ever^^thlng 
he had ever read, which must be Invaluable to a 
man hunting particular passages. Let me Illus- 
trate this. Suppose you are keeping an index on 
General Garfield's principle. You have been 
reading that brilliant Invective against treason In i| 
Congress, and the paragraph on coercion strikes 5- 
you as being both sound and well worth remem- , 
bering: ; 

" No statute was ever enforced without coercion. It is the 
basis of every law in the universe — human or divine. A law . 
is no law without coercion behind it. You levy taxes— •, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ ^ - 

coercion secures their collection. It follows the shadoAv of the 
thief and brings him to justice. It lays its iron hand on the 
murderer, tries him and hangs him. It accompanies your 
diplomacy to foreign courts and backs the declaration of the 
nation's rights, by a pledge of the nation's strength. But when 
the life of the nation is imperiled, we are told that it has 
no coercive power against the paracides in its own bosom ! !" 



This, then, you enter in your Index thus: "Co- 
ercion — under the Constitution. Opinion of James 
A. Garfield — Speech upon Treason In Congress, 
House of Representatives, April 8th, 1864. Vol. 
, page — 



>> 



This the general has done for all the books he 
has read, and the reader can Imagine what a mine 
of Information he can prove on any subject at a 
moment's notice. This system also permits him 
to hoard to advantage fugitive scraps from news- 
papers, and In its maturity, is the product of his 
thought. He ascribes to It much of his success in 
extempore speaking, the like of which, for wealth 
and Information, and glowing Illustration, are not 
heard In either branch of Congress to-day, and 
have not been for many years. There is a com- 
mon-place saying In the reporters' gallery, that 
when Garfield chooses to cram on a subject, there 
is no man in Washington who can stand before 
the deluge of facts with which he will overwhelm 
all opposition. 

In these books there were many hundreds of 
pages filled with scraps, annotations, picked sen- 



2^2,6 Z/I^E AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

tences, incidents and witticisms, from a collection 
of authors and newspapers representing the best 
thought in literature, ancient and modern, of al- 
most the entire world. Besides these there, were 
innumerable thoughts of his own upon the innu- 
merable thincrs he had read in the course of his 
prolonged studies, and which he had embalmed in 
black and white while yet the "idea divine" was 
warm and livinof in his brain. 

"It is perfectly astounding," said the general, 
"how much we are indebted to other people for 
our opinions. Comparatively few men or women 
take the trouble to think for themselves. Most 
persons frame their opinions from what they read 
or hear others say. I noticed this early in life, but 
never saw the evil of it until I went to Congress. 
Committees appointed to investigate particular 
subjects would meet together, and no one would 
say much at first. After a while some one would 
get up and state his opinion positively, ^i'^^ his 
reasons for thinking so, and in nine cases out of 
ten that man's opinion would be adopted as the 
opinion of the committee. The other members 
either had not or did not care to investigate the 
matter, and rather than take the trouble to look 
up the facts, v/ould accept this member's opinion 
as their ow-n." 

It was this that had made him such a close stu- 
dent, and caused him to read so much on matters 
that affected Congressional legislation. He warned 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ ^ ^^ 

every one against the pernicious practice of taking 
other people's opinions as correct, and holding 
that every man and woman should try and find 
out the fact and think for themselves. 

His scrap-book offered abundant evidence that 
he himself followed this sound advice. All were 
arranged in the nicest order, and through the en- 
tire series I could follow the trail of the great de- 
bater's readings from their beginning almost to 
the present time. Thus, for the year 1859, I 
found the first annotation on financial subjects. 
These are at first somewhat straggling, mixed in 
with more or less of the classic poets. Then they 
become more frequent, until finally they outnum- 
ber all other topics, and are full of ''Tooke's His- 
tory of Prices," and "Sir Archibald Allison," that 
were so useful when Garfield followed Pig-iron 
Kelley into the history of France and England 
in 1879-80, to the discomfiture of the old man 
and his soft-money friends. Re-enforcing his scrap- 
book, the general has a large case of pigeon-holes, 
holding, perhaps, fifty boxes, labeled "The Press," 
"French Spoliation," "Tariff," "Geneva Award," 
"General Politics," "State Politics," "Public Men," 
"Parliamentary Decisions," Anecdotes," "Elec- 
toral Laws and Commission," etc., etc. These are 
filled with the choicest references and bits of cur- 
rent literature on the various special topics, and 
are continually replenished from every product of 
the printing press. 



33^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



One of the children came and interrupted us at 
this point. The general took the child, answered 
all its questions and then tenderly sent it away 
with "there, my darling, go now and play." Just 
then Mrs. Garfield came to the head of the stairs 
and the general called her in. After introducing 
her, he put his arm about her and went out with 
her, Mrs. Garfield saying she wished to speak to 
him about some household affairs. 

Mrs. Garfield is not what would be called a 
pretty woman, but she is tall, fine-looking, has a 
kind, good face, and the gentlest of manners. She 
has a slieht but well-knit form; small features 
with a somewhat prominent forehead, and her 
black hair, crimped in front and done up in a mod- 
est coil, is slightly tinged with gray. A pair of 
black eyes and a mouth about which there plays 
a sweetly bewitching smile are the most attrac- 
tive features of a thoroughly expressive face. 
She is a quick observer, an intelligent listener, 
but undemonstrative in the extreme. When the 
general was at Chickamauga, and everybody at 
Hiram was painfully anxious to get the latest 
news from the field of batde, she sat quiet and 
patient in what is now Professor Hinsdale's library, 
and was able to control the inmost emotions that 
swayed her breast. 

She impressed me as a thoroughly domestic 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



2>Z9 



woman, who loves her home, her children and her 

husband. Mary Clemner pays her the following 

tribute : 

''She has 'the philosophic mind' that Wordsworth sings 
of, and she has^a self poise, a strength of unswerving absolute 
rectitude. * * * Much of the time that other women 
give to distributing visiting-cards, in the frantic effort to 
make themselves 'leaders of society,' Mrs. Garjfield spends in 
the alcoves of the Congressional Library, searching out books 
to carry home to study while she nurses the children. You 
may be sure of one thing — the woman who reads and studies 
while she rocks her babies will not be left far behind by her 
husband in the march of actual growth. I have seen many 
women come to the surface of capitolian life out of obscurity 
and go back into obscurity again ; have seen hundreds of so- 
called ' leaders of society ' shrivel and go out in the scorch- 
ing flame of fashion ; w^hile I have followed with a tender 
heart this woman, the wife of a famous man — a woman whom 
nobody called a 'leader.' She, meanwhile, has not been 
lifted off her feet, as many women are, by her husband's 
rising fortunes; no 'spreading' forth in style of dress or 
living, no 'airs.' And in Washington, in official life, that 
means everything — indicative of character. She has moved 
on in the tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life of 
absolute devotion to her duty ; never forgetting the demands 
of her position or neglecting her friends, yet making it her 
first charge to bless her home, to teach her children, to fit 
her boys for college, to be the equal friend, as well as the 
honored wife, of her husband. Gentle, patient, unobtrusive 
almost to timidity, keenly intelligent, liberally educated, con- 
scientiously devoted to everything good — this is the woman 
who will perpetuate the loving, consecrated life that to-day 
abides in the White House, if as its mistress she enters it." 

Of Mrs. Garfield the general said on his return, 
and his voice had a touch of tenderness : 



340 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



''I have been wonderfully blessed in the discretion of my 
wife. She is one of the coolest and best-balanced women 1 
ever saw. She is unstampedable. There has not been one 
solitary instance of my public career where I suffered in the 
smallest degree for any remark she ever made. It would have 
been perfectly natural for a woman often to say something 
that could be misinterpreted ; but without any design, and 
with the intelligence and coolness of her character, she has 
never made the slightest mistake that I ever heard of. With 
the competition that has been against me, many times such 
discretion has been a real blessing." 



'&• 



She has borne the general six children. The 
first, a daughter, who died in infancy. Two boys, 
Harry Augustus and James R,, aged eighteen 
and sixteen respectively, are students at St. Paul's 
School, Concord, N. H., under the charge of the 
Rev. Dr. Coit. They entered the school in Sep- 
tember, 1879, and quickly proved themselves 
sturdy, manly boys, and good, faithful students. 
At the close of the school year (June 24th, j88o), 
Harry won the prize for the best EngHsh decla- 
mation, the qualities for which he has no doubt 
inherited from his father — the Webster of the 
West. The boys were both in the fifth form this 
year, and will be prepared to enter college in the 
coming September. The third child is Mary, a 
rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed girl of thirteen, who 
is called " MolHe " by everybody. The next is 
Irvin McDowell — so named as a sort of protest 
acrainst the unwarranted abuse that General Mc- 

o 

Dowell, Garfield's close friend, received during 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ 4 j 

and after the war. The boy Is nine years old. 
The youngest is aged six, and named Abram — 
after his grandfather. This is the boy I noticed 
up In the cherry tree, as I waited for the general 
on my arrival. 

" Have you met mother?" asked my host. 

" No," I repHed. 

"Oh, I want to Introduce you then ; you must 
know mother." He spoke of her so often, 
and so tenderly, I could not but see that she was 
constantly in his thoughts. 

I went down-stairs to see her. She is a very 
small woman, and looked almost diminutive be- 
side her stalwart son. She Is eighty, quick in 
her movements, and in full possession of her 
mental faculties. She is thin, white-haired, rosy- 
cheeked, and has a prominent nose — like many 
another who has adorned the pages of history. 

On belnof introduced I found her rather reti- 
cent. She seemed to be most concerned about the 
children and the work around the house, that it 
should go on uninterruptedly and in the proper 
manner. She was evidently a matter-of-fact, 
common-sense old lady, and I could not but ad- 
mire her, remembering her sacrifices for her 
children, and how she had cared for her boy 
James, laying for him the foundation of his 
present eminence when she counseled him to "re- 
member his God and study books." 

She called him " my son," and remarked on the 
20 



342 ^^^^^ -^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

weather, their new place, and asked if I was mar- 
ried and how many children I had. I could not 
get her to talk about politics in Washington, and 
I do not believe she is over-well pleased Avith her 
son's nomination for President. Of course she is 
proud of him, and desires his success, but he was 
already a senator, and I think the old lady would 
have preferred to have had him go no higher. 
She knew he would be away from their rural 
home most of the time, and, pressed by public 
care and duty, she could have him less to herself. 
Nor can you wonder at this, for Garfield makes 
his home so much of a home, as he reveals him- 
self in his life and letters. Here are two to Mr. 
Hinsdale : 

" Mentor, Ohio, May 13th, 1877. 
"You can hardly imagine how completely I have turned my mind out of 
its usual channels during the last four weeks. You know I have never been 
able to do anything moderately, and, to-day, I feel myself lame in every 
muscle with too much lifting and digging. I shall try to do a little less the 
coming week." 

"Washington, November 2d, 1878. 
" Last evening I called on Judge Black at the Ebbett House, and found 
him with a Bible in his hand. He said : * I don't know any one who has 
properly appreciated the parables of Jesus. I don't believe that the man 
ever lived who could have written any one of them, even the least of them. 
They are unlike anything in literature or philosophy in the.ir spirit, purpose 
and character. If they were all that Jesus had left us, they would be con. 
elusive proofs of His divinity.' What do you think of this ? The Judge 
then went on to say that he had that morning asked a lady friend to lend 
liim some books for Sunday reading, and, among others, she had sent him 
a volume entitled 'Alone with Jeius.' 'And,' said he, 'the title repelled 
me for two reasons : first, it is a piece of spontaneous egoism for any man 
to assume that he is of so much consequence in the universe that Christ 
would shut out all the rest of the world and attend to him ; and, second, I 



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JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ . h 

knew a bank cashier who stole everytliing he could lay his hands on, and 
then ran away in the night. He left behind him a diary full of the most 
pious ejaculations, and the last entry he made in it was this : " Spent an 
hour of sweet communion aloile with Jesus." This remembrance spoiled 
the book for me, and so I have not read it.' 

" I spent several hours with him, and found him more than usually bril- 
liant. He said he was inclined to believe that a man rarely, after he was 
forty years old, fell in love with a new poet. For his own part, no one 
later than Byron had taken much hold on him. Coleridge, Southey and 
Wordsworth he had read but little, probably because Byron had so savagely 
denounced them as the lakers. He has no admiration for Tennyson, and 
says he never had the patience to wade through ' In Memoriam.' Pie was 
greatly pleased with my plan of going into the law, and proposed to form 
a sort of special partnership in the cases that he and I might have in. the 
Supreme Court here. This may be of much service to me." 

While I was talking with Mother Garfield, the 
general's wife, clad in a plain, calico dress, came 
in with a work-basket, and sat down to darn the 
children's stockings. Presently, it began to rain, 
and, to my surprise, the old lady w^ent out bare- 
headed, and brought in a chair off the lawn. I 
remonstrated, and desired to assist her, but she 
only laughed and said: "Nevermind, it won't hurt 
me." 

At dinner, everybody was hunted up, and one oi 
the general's secretaries said: "It is the general's 

i orders everybody shall come; he would not like it 

, if any one went away hungry." 

I I sat next to Mrs. Garfield, and I found her a 
jready and charming conversationalist, and withal^ 
so easy, modest, gentle and attentive in her man- 
ner, it was a pleasure to be beside her. 

The children had a separate table near Mrs. 
Garfield, and they kept constantly speaking to 



346 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



mamma, and breaking in on her conversation. 
One of these wild, romping boys, came and put- 
ting his arm around her neck, whispered in her 
car. She tried to quiet them, but they were so 
full of life and spirits they would not be still. 
Turning to me, she said: 

" What would you do with such a lot ?" 
" Let them alone, and bless God for them." 
'' Ah, you have children," she continued, and 
on my answering In the affirmative, she asked 
about them, how many were boys, how many girls, 
and then their respective ages, until she had learnt 
all. And with such mutually interesting chat, the 
dinner hour sped rapidly away. 

After It was over, I went with the general to his 
office, where, producing a handful of cigars, and! 
lighting one, he talked freely of many things. ll 
asked him about his early life, and he spokel 
modestly and earnestly of his struggles with 
poverty. The sea he mentioned enthusiastically, 
as the memory of his first fancies came over 
him. 

" But even now, at times, the old feeling (the 
longing for the sea) comes back," and, walking 
across the room, he turned, with a flashing eye: 
*' I tell you I would rather now command a fieet 
in a great naval battle than do anything else on 
this earth. The sight of a ship often fills me with , 
a strong fascination, and when upon the water, ■ 
and my fellow-landsmen are In the agonies of sea- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^.j 

Sickness, I am as tranquil as when walking the 
land in the serenest weather." 

I saw from his conversation he thought I had 
been raised in a city or town, and knew nothing of 
farm-life. I did not then undeceive him, for I 
\/ished to hear his story, but after he had finished, 
I remarked : 

" I know all about that, and how hard it Is ; for 
I have been throuo-h It all." 

" Ah," he exclaimed, " then you were raised on 
a farm." 

" Yes, and a poor one at that, at the foot of the 
Alleghany Mountains, where we all had to scratch 
to get a living." 

Laughing heartily, he said, musingly: 

" Tell me, now, do you think we can raise men 
for high positions ? There are my boys, I am 
educating them carefully, but I can't tell if they 
will ever be heard of, and I question it. No doubt 
you will do the same with your boys — but will 
they rise in the world? Won't it happen that 
some poor and obscure litde fellow, who has to 
scratch for every Inch, will run ahead of them and 
come to the front, while they will pass away un- 
knov/n to fame ?" 

" That Is nearlyalways the case." 

"So It Is; and it makes me wonder If tender 
rearing of boys, and giving them an elaborate 
education, is so much of a benefit to them, after 
all." 



34S 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



One of the lads about whom we had been talk 
ing came In at the moment, to say the workmen 
who were building a fence about the yard wished 
to see the general. He put on his hat and went 
out, first giving me his scrap-books, and asking 
me to amuse myself by looking them over until 
his return. He stayed so long, I lit a cigar 
and went down into the hall to smoke. While I 
was waiting, the same boy came back and told his 
mother, papa wanted to see her about the fence. 
She put on a hat and went out, and on going to 
the door, I saw the general was himself helping 
the workmen with the palings and posts. Seeing 
me, he seemed to remember he had left me wait- 
ing, and at once came up to excuse hirnself : "You 
see we have a new place here, and I am trying to 
get It fixed up. I came here expecting to spend 
a quiet vacation, and when the nomination at Chi- 
cago dropped on me, It found us all up-side down. 
So many people are coming constantly, I want to 
^et It In order, and am pushing it all I can by 
juperintending the worl: personally." 

He then offered to go up to the office again and 
five me all the time wanted of him, but I excused 
him, saying I thought I had taken up quite enough 
of his day already. 

He expressed great willingness to attend to 
me, but said if I did not want him he would 
g;o up-stairs and do some writing. I went up 
with him to get my hat, and he pointed to a 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^O 

sheet of paper lying on his desk which I saw, 
from the different headings and divisions, was the 
outhne of his letter of acceptance, and that he was 
hunting up authorities which he wished to consult 
in preparing it. 

"A tough job," I ventured. 

"Yes/* he replied, laughing, "rather a tough 
job," and with that I left him to his work, the gen- 
eral seeine me to the door and bowinor me out. 

I cannot better close this chapter than with four 
of Garfield's letters — letters that at once brinnr us 
top"ether with their author ; that seem indeed the 
happiest of introductions to our hero. They were 
all written to Mr. Hinsdale : 

" IIiRAM, October 26th, 1865. 

" I do not remember to have claimed that St. Cyril was tinctured with 
Neoplatonism ; but I did say that the Church at Alexandria was consider- 
ably influenced by the doctrines of that sect. I have looked into it a little 
and find a considerable variety of opinions among different authors. 
Gibbon speaks of it as an attempt to reconcile the doctrines of Plato and 
Aristotle, and says that as a philosophy it i-i unworthy of notice. It is 
only important as connected with Christianity. The bigotry and folly of 
the Church persecuted it. Gibbon's commentator says the Neoplatonists 
were not at war with Christianity, but desired to apply their ]ihilosophy to 
the religion of Christ. Gibbon speaks of it also as an attempt to revive 
Paganism. See also his interesting account of Julian the Apostate, who 
was a Ncaplatonist for a while," 



. 



" Washington, January ist, 1S72. 

" In regard to the authenticity and purity of the Shakespeare text I have 
made some considerable study, and with what I have already done, I hope 
to be able to get something for you at the library, either in the way of a 
loan or of reference, and I will attend to it soon. * * * 

" Have you seen the new book on Physical Geography by the French 
writer, Reclus ? A translation has just been published in New York. I 
have looked over it, and think it a remarkably valuable book. The 
Evening Post has said of it within the past two or three days that it is the 
compL'test work extant on that subject." 



o CQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

"Washington, February 22d, 1872. 

"■ Yours of the i6th instant is received. I am glad to know that somebody 
has related the subject of the Holy Roman Empire in an intelligent way. 
It has always been to me one of the dark points in European history. 1 
shall get the book without delay, and read it as soon as I can steal time 
enough from work and sleep. 

" Since I wrote you last, I found a book which interests me very much. 
You may have seen it ; if not, I hope you will get it. It is entitled, ' Ten 
CJreat Religions,' by James Freeman Clarke. I have read the chapter on 
Ihiddhism with great interest. It is admirably written, in a liberal and 
philosophical spirit, and I am sure will interest you. What I have read of 
it leads me to believe that we have taken too narrow a view of the subject 
of religion." 

" Washington, April 30th, 1874. 
" There is much in life to make one sad and disheartened ; but whether 
we maintain a cheerful spirit or not, depends largely on the way in which 
we view the events and outcomes of life. I think the main point of safety 
is to look upon life with a view of doing as much good to others as 
possible, and, as far as possible, to strip ourselves of what the French call 



esroi'^m. 



The v/orst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have beei 
greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some worl 
relating to others. Your life is so much devoted in this direction that ^ 
think you will find in it the greatest safety from the danger of gloom.'' 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 

JO 



"'U 



CHAPTER XXV. 



TWO PEN PORTRAITS. 



HIS home is about half-way between Men- 
tor and Willoughby, so that we had but 
two miles to drive to the station. About 
a mile and a half west of his home is a curiosity 
In the shape of Joe Smith's first Mormon temple. 
It is a plain, but queer-looking structure, thaV 
served its purpose for a while, now only a curi- 
osity almost useless. This, however, did not de- 
tain me. It was but a speck In the landscape 
of a country that was quite attractive and enabled 
me to realize why the general wished to reside 
away from the city's bustling walls. His hard 
student life and the Incessant cares of public duty 
in Washington could all be left behind, and he 
always hastens to his home when Congress ad- 
journs. The house Is sufficiently lonely to be out 
of the way of Idlers or mere curiosity callers, and 
few would break in upon the rest of the great 
statesman, unless they were called thither by im- 
i|,perative business. He needs rest and leisure to 
prepare himself for the winter sessions of Con- 
gress at Washington, and from the midst of this 
beautiful scenery he returns each year to the 
capital thoroughly Invigorated. 



o ^ -> LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

My youthful companion spoke eloquently of 
the general and seemed most anxious to convince 
me that Garfield was really a great man. I asked 
him if the general was very popular with the peo- 
pie of that section, and he replied: "Well, I 
should say so, why they are all going to vote for 
him." From others I learned about the same 
thinof, and came to the conclusion, that if a man is 
best judged by the opinions of those among I 
whom he has lived. General Garfield is peculiarly 
fortunate. From one end of his district to an- i 
other, among Republicans and Democrats alike, * 
no one speaks of him but in the language of 
praise, respect, love and admiration. The same 
statement applies in a large degree to the State. 
But in his own district, among his old friends and 
neighbors, he stands as a synonym for all that is 
manly, good and honest. The reader has men-i 
tally photographed him from what I have related 
above. He is equally interesting as others see 
him. George Alfred Townsend drew this picture 
of him in the Cinci7inati Enquirer : 

"The writer has known t^eneral Garfield pretty well for 
thirteen years. He is a large, well-fed, hale, ruddy, brown- 
bearded man, weighing about two hundred and twenty 
pounds, with Ohio German colors, blue eyes, military face, 
erect figure and shoulders, large back and thighs, and 
broad chest, and evidently bred in the country on a farm. 
His large mouth is full of strong teetli ; his nose, chin and 
brows are strongly pronounced. A large brain, with room 
for play of thought and long application, rises high above his 



James A. GARFIELD. 2^2 

clear, discerning, enjoying eyes. He sometimes suggests a 
country Samson — strong beyond his knowledge, but un- 
guarded as a school-boy. He pays little attention to the 
affectation by which some men manage public opinion, and 
has one kind of behavior for all callers, which is the most 
natural behavior at hand. Strangers would think him a little 
cold and mentally shy. On acquaintance he is seen to be 
hearty above everything, loving the wife around him, his 
family, his friends, his State and country. Loving, sympa- 
thetic and achieving people, and with a large, unprofessing 
sense of the brotherhood of workers in the fields of progress, 
it was the feeling of sympathy and the desire to impart which 
took him for chief, while as to the pulpit, or on the verge of 
it, full of all that he saw and acquired, he panted to give it 
forth after it had passed through the alembic of his mind. 
Endowed with a warm temperament, copious expression, 
large, wide-seeing faculties and superabundant health, he 
could study all night or lecture all day, and it was a provi- 
dence that his neighbors discovered that he was too much of 
a man to conceal in the pulpit, where his docility and rever- 
ence had almost taken him. They sent him to the State 
Legislature, where he was when the war broke out, and he 
immediately went to the field, where his courage and pains- 
taking parts and love of open-air occupation, and perfect 
freedom from self-assertion made him the delight of Rose- 
crans and George H. Thomas successively. He would go 
about any work they asked of him ; was unselfish and enthu- 
siastic, and had steady, temperate habits, and his large brain 
and reverence made everything novel to him. 

*' There is an entire absence of nonchalance or worldliness 
in his nature. He is never indifferent, never vindictive. A 
base action or ingratitude or cruelty may make him sad, but 
does not provoke retaliation or alter that faith in men or 
providence which is a part of his sound stomach and athletic 
head. Garfield is as simple as a child ; to the serpent's wis- 
dom he is a stranger. Having no use nor aptitude with the 



354 ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREBJi OF 

weapons of coarser natures, he often avoids mere disputes, 
does not go to the public resorts where men are familiar or 
vulgar, and the walk from his home in Washington to the 
Capitol, and an occasional dinner out, comprise his life. 
The word public servant especially applies to him. He has 
been the drudge of his State constituents, the public, the 
public societies and the moral societies of his party and coun- 
try, since 1863. Aptitude for public debate and public 
affairs are associated with a military nature in him. He is on 
a broad scale a school-master of the range of Gladstone, of 
Agassiz, of Gallatin. 

"With as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitors 
of sordid ambition. General Garfield has yet so little of the 
worldly wise in him that he is poor, and yet has been accused 
of dishonesty. He has no capacity for investment, nor the 
rapid solution of wealth, nor profound respect for the penny 
in and out ot pound, and still, is neither careless, improvident 
nor dependent The great consuming passions to equal richer 
people and live finely and extend his social power is as foreign 
to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicious nor 
a high-mettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly 
from his obliging, unrefusing disposition. Men who were 
scheming imposed upon him as upon Grant and other crude- 
eyed men of affairs. The people of his district, who are 
quick to punish public venality or defection, heard him in 
his defense, in 1873, and kept him in Congress and held up 
his hand, and hence he is, by their unwavering support for 
twenty-five years, candidate for president and a national 
character. Since John Quincy Adams, no president has had 
Garfield's scholarship, which is equal up to this age of wider 
facts. The average American, pursuing money all day long, 
is now presented to a man who had invariably put the busi- 
ness of others above his own, and worked for that alleged 
nondescript — the public gratitude — all his life. But he has 
not labored without reward. The great nomination came 
to-day to as pure and loving a man as ever wished well of 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. ^r^ 

anybo(l5r and put his shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. 
Garfield's big, boyish heart is pained to-night with the weight 
of his obligation, affection and responsibility. To-day, as 
hundreds of telegrams come from everywhere, saying ki>nd, 
strong things to him — such messages as only Americans, in 
their rapid, good impulses, pour upon a lucky friend — he was 
with two volunteer clerks in a room, opening and reading, 
and suddenly his two boys sent him one — little fellows at 
school — and as he read it he broke down, and tried to talk, 
but his voice choked and he could not see for tears. The 
clerks began to cry, too, and people to whom they after- 
ward told it. This sense of real great heart will be new to 
the country, and will grow if he gets the presidency. 

*'He is the ablest public speaker in the country, and the 
most serious and instructive man on the stump ; his instincts, 
liberal and right \ his courtesy, noticeable in our politics ; 
his aims, ingenuous, and his piety comes by nature. He 
leads a farmer's life, all the recess of Congress, working 
like a field hand, and restoring his mind by resting it. 
If elected, he will give a tone of culture and intelli- 
gence to the executive office it has never yet had, while 
he has no pedantry in his composition, and no conceit 
whatever. ' ' 

A more elaborate analysis of the man was made 
by Professor B. A. Hinsdale, President of Hiram 

College: 

''His power of logical analysis and classification is very great; 
of rhetorical exposition hardly surpassed. He excels in the 
patient accumulation of facts, and in striking generalizations. 
As a student, he loves to roam in every field of activity. He 
delights in poetry and other works of the imagination ) loves 
the abstruse things of philosophy ; takes keen interest in 
scientific research ; gathers into his store-house the facts of 
history and politics, and throws over it all the life and 



-c(5 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

warmth of his own originality. Of course, he is not a ScaH 
ger, a Des Cartes, a Newton ; no man in public life — not 
even Gladstone — can be these. But his general culture is 
broad, deep, and generous. He has the best instincts and 
habits of the student and the scholar. Probably no man in 
Congress these twelve years past has more won upon our 
scientists, our scholars, and our men of literature. He was 
the friend of Henry and of Agassiz : he is the friend of How- 
ells, of Lowell, and of Parkman. Withal, he is an orator. 
He has not the massive grandeur of Webster, the brilliant 
declamation of Clay, or the fervid passion of Henry. But his 
speeches are strong in fact, ribbed with principle, lucid in 
argument, polished in diction, rich in illustration, and warm 
with the vital power of a noble heart. 

*'His moral character is the fit crown to his physical and 
intellectual nature. No man has a kinder heart or a purer 
mind. His generosity of nature is unstinted ; all his life, 
public and private, is marked by great unselfishness. For the 
most part, he has neglected material acquisition; but his 
means, as well as his time and talents, are at the call of those 
who need them. I fearlessly say that the nearer men have 
come to General Garfield the greater has been their confi- 
dence. I may say that he has inspired unusual respect and 
faith in all large-minded and generous men without regard to 
politics. He has commanded success. His ability, knowl- 
edge, mastery of questions, generosity of nature, devotion to 
the public good, and honesty of purpose have done the work. 
He has never had a political ^machine.' He has never for- 
gotten the day of small things. 

^' I am far from indorsing all of General Garfield's public 
acts. Those who know me will hardly charge me with being 
a fulsome eulogist. He has said and done some things that I 
have been sorry to have him say and do. He has failed to 
say and do some others that I have had much at heart. But 
this I see : He has served the public with conspicuous ability 
and a single eye. He has moved all the time in the right di- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^57 

rection. He has striven to make the public service clean and 
honorable; to make the government one of statesmen and 
patriots, not of demagogues and place-men; and in every 
way to dignify and ennoble the republic. 

''A newspaper man from a distant city asked me the othe? 
day : ' How do you explain the common lack of confidence 
in Mr. Garfield's courage?' I said: 'Who doubts his 
courage ?' He answered that he had heard in Washington 
and in other places that he lacked backbone. A few ques- 
tions revealed that those who held this opinion thought that 
he did not denounce * the Solid South' with sufficient sever- 
ity, and was not properly active in stirring up the brigadiers. 
If I may parody Madame Roland, ' O courage, what folly is 
committed in thy name!' I have known a minister of the 
Gospel to be called a coward because he could recognize the 
worth of those who did riot worship in his conventicle. 
Similarly, eager partisans charge with cowardice the man who, 
loyal to his own convictions of truth and duty, dares to think 
and act for himself. In both cases what is called cowardice is 
the genuine moral courage. To go with the stream — to bless 
with your sect or to hurrah with your party — is slight proof 
of courage; but to stand out by yourself in moral isolation, 
to bear the jibes of those whom you call your brethren, is a 
very high proof of character. Such a man is General Gar- 
field. He has uttered many noble words ; but none nobler 
than these, spoken in the Ohio Senate Chamber just after his 
late election : 

'''Let me venture to point a single instance in regard to 
that work. During the twenty years that I have been in pub- 
lic (almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United 
jStates), I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mis- 
?taken or otherwise it has been the plan of my life to follow my 
convictions, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have rep- 
resented for many years a district in Congress whose approba- 
tion I greatly desired, but though it may seem perhaps a 
little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the appro- 



35S 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



batioft of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the 
only man tliat I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, 
and live with, and die with, and if I could not have his appro- 
bation, I should have bad companionship.' " 



% 

■A' 

i 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^ rg 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



PREPARING FOR BATTLE. 



^ ¥ ^HE National Convention of the Republican 
I Party that nominated James A. Garfield 
■^^ for the Presidency, was one of the most 
important political conventions ever held in this 
country. Aside from the ever-interesting issue of a 
national convention — a nominee — this convention 
was the battle-ground on which several questions 
of the utmost importance to political life in this 
country were settled only at the conclusion of a 
hard-fought struggle. The unit rule, the third- 
term issue, district representation, and the still 
more vital issue of party managers trampling on 
popular wishes and opposing the will of those who 
placed them in power, made up a total of interest 
never before equaled in the history of the party. 
The struggle surpassed in fierceness the bitterest 
fights on record. A brief history of this conven- 
tion Is, therefore, valuable for present reading, as 
It furnishes many a lesson for the campaign, and 
most happily illustrates the peculiar fortunes of 
General Garfield, who, while ever in patient wait- 
ing, has had his long succession of honors seek 
him openly. It is a curious story of cause and 
effect. 



36o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The convention assembled In the Exposition 
Building', at Chicago, on June 2d. The great men 
of the party were all there, and the list of those 
who held seats Is as follows : 

Alabama. — George Turner, J. H. Thomaston, B. S. Tur- 
ner, G. H. Brayton, James Gillette, Allen Alexander, Paul 
Strobach, G. W. Washington, J. Heyman, William Young- 
blood, W. J. Stevens, J. T. Rapier, L. E. Parsons, H. C. 
Bryant, W. S. Byrd, N. W. Tremble, R. A. Mosley, A. 
Bingham, A. McCulloch, J. M. Hines. 

Arkansas. — S. W. Dorsey, M. W. Gibbs, H. P. Robinson, 
S. H. Holland, J. H. Johnson, O. A. Hadley, Powell Clay- 
ton, O. P. Snyder, Jacob Tireber, James K. Barnes, J. A. 
Barnes, Ferdinand Havis. 

California, — J. C. Wilmerding, Samuel Mosgrove, J K. 
Doak, Creed Raymond, E. A. Davis, Joseph Russ, Alexander 
D. Sharon, Socrates Huff, H. T. Fairbanks, John Mansfield, 
D. S. Paine, F. M. Pixley. 

Colorado. — Ex-Governor Rosett, Amos Sleek, J. A. El- 
lett, L. Head, George T. Black, M. M. Megure. 

Connecticut. — Henry C. Robinson, John M. Douglass, 
Augustus Brandagee, Samuel Fessenden, Andrew S. Upson, 
William M. Corbin, Hobart B. Bigelow, William C. Hough, 
Daniel Chadwick, Jeremiah Olney, Edgar S. Tweedy, N. T. 
Baldwin. 

Delaware. — Christian Febiger, Levi R. Clarke, N. B. 
Smithers, James R. Lofland, Benjamin Burton, Albert Curry. 

Florida. — W. W. Hicks, F. C. Humphreys, E. J. Alex- 
ander, R. E. Smith, Joseph E. Lee, V. J. Shipman, Sherman 
Conant, James Dean. 

Georgia.— E. C. Wade, J. F. Long, W. A. Pledger, Ed- 
win Belcher, L. B. Toomer, Floyd Snelson, B. F. Brimberry, 
John Fow, Jack Brown, Elbert Head, R. D. Lock, J. C. 
Beall, A. E. Buck, H. A. Rucker, W. W. Brown, J. B. Dc 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. -^5j 

veaux, A. M. Middlebrook, H. B. Hickenbotom, C. H. Prince, 
J. W. Lyons, S. A. Darnell, Madison Davis, 

Illinois — John A. Logan, E. A. Storrs, G. B. Raum, D. 
T. Little, John Wentworth, S. A. Douglas, A. M. Wright, R. 
S. Tuthill, John L. Beveridge, L. J. Kadisch, N. C. Thomp- 
son, N. N. Ravlin, J. B. Brown, Miles White, Henry T. 
Noble, W. H. Shepard, E. F. Bull, E. Vv^. Willard, J. B. 
Wilson, R. J. Hanna, Joab Mershen, R. H. Whitney, Hosea 
Davis, F. B. Burgett, O. B. Hamilton, T. G. Black, G. M. 
Brinkerhoff, C. M. Eames, John McNulta, Major V. Warner, 

J. V. Harris, Hayworth, W. H. Barlow, A. P. Green, 

J. M. Truitt, Lewis Krueghoff, A. W. Metcalf, Richard 
Rowett, C. O. Patrel, J. M. Davis, C. W. Pavey, W. H. 
Williams. 

Indiana — Benjamin Harrison, George W. Friedley, Daniel 
B. Kumler, James S. Collins, Alexander Gilchrist, W. M. 
Hoggatt, John B. Glover, S. E. Kerchival, W. B. Siemmens, 
J. H. Friedley, John H. Crozier, F. Adkinson, David A. 
Beem, Joseph B. Homan, Milton Peden, T. M. Little, R. O. 
Hawkins, J. B. McFadden, William R. McKeen, E. H. Ne- 
becker, B. K. Higginbottom, G. F. Crittenden, F. S. Bedell, 
John W. Wimer, J. J. Todd, J. F. Vail, W. M. Clapp, C. K. 
Baxter, Clement Studebaker, B. F. Davenport. 

Iowa — J. S. Clarkson, S. M. Clark, D. B. Henderson, 
George D. Perkins, J. S. Hurley, H. A. Burrell, H. C. Carr, 
J. W. Thompson, George W. Bassett, P. F. Sturgis, H. L. 
Huff, L. F. Butler, F. J. Upton, R. M. Haines, J. F. Green- 
lee, George D. Wooden, J. S. Runnells, J. R. McKee,. C. 
W. Llewellen, W. P. Sharpe, B. F. Harkness, W. D. Lucas. 

Kansas — John A. Martin, George H. Case, S. S. Bene- 
dict, B. W. Perkins, H. P. Walcott, Perry Hutchinson, 
Simeon Motz, B. F. Simpson, P. B. Plumb, William 
Thompson. 

Kentucky — Walter Evans, W. O. Bradley, John D. 
White, John H. Jackson, J. R. Puryear, J. R. Happy, A. H. 
Clark, E. C. Hubbard, W. G. Hunter, George F. Blakey, E. 



36: 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



H. Hobson, John W. Lewis, Silas F. Miller, James F. Buck- 
ner, J. E. Hamilton, John E. Barbour, R. P. Stoll, William 
Brown, J. K. Faulkner, Logan McKee, A. E. Adams, A. T. 
Wood, W. W. Culbertson, Morris Hutchings. 

Louisiana — H. C. Warmoth, John T. Ludeling, William 
P. Kellogg, A. S. Badger, A. H. Leonard, J. S. Matthews, 
David Young, J. Wharton, James Lewis, A. J. Dumont, 
Richard Simms, Samuel Wakefield, William Harper, W. L. 
McMillen, J. H. Burch, Don A. Pardee. 

Maine — Eugene Hale, E. T. Gile, Joseph R. Bodwell, 
Almon A. Strout, William W. Thomas, Jr., Jos. R. Libby, 
William P. Frye, J. W. Wakefield, Joseph H. Mmly, S. S. 
Marble, Lewis Baker, Llewellyn Powers, L. G. Downs, John 
S. Case. 

Maryland — James A. Gary, Jacob Tome, Lloyd Lowndes, 
J. Morrison Harris, Charles T. Wescott, Samuel Mallalieu, 
J. A. J. Cresswell, J. J. Weaver, D. R. West, W. W. John- 
son, Dr. H. J. Drown, W. J. Hooper, Colonel J. Rowan 
Crone, John W. Bell, Upton W. Boorman, B. H. Miller. 

Massachusetts — George F. Hoar, Charles R. Codman, 
John E. Sanford, J. M. Barker, C. W. Clifford, A. Eldridge, 
W. C. Lowring, F. A. Hobart, Phineas Pierce, C. Burnham, 
Eustace C. Fitz, J. O. Wetherbee, Henry C. Lodge, Daniel 
Russell, Dudley Porter, N. A. Morton, G. S. Boutwell, G. 
A. Marden, R. M. Morse, Jr., G. W. Johnson, W. S. B. Hop- 
kins, William Knowlton, A. Harding, T. Merrick, W. Smith, 
M. B. Whitney. 

Michigan — James F. Joy, Perry Hannah, Omar D. Con- 
ger, E. C. Watkins, W. G. Thompson, D. O. Farrand, J. D. 
Rowan, L. L. P^field, C. D. Randall, Morgan Bates, A. H. 
Morrison, J. W. French, George A. Farr, A. B. Watson, 
Charles Kipp, E. M. Adams, B. W. Huston, William Jenny, E. 
O. Avery, Thomas N. Stevens, J. H. Chandler, D. A. Blodgett. 

Minnesota — D. Sinclair, D. M. Sabin, A. O. Whipple, 
Dorilus Morrison, A. C. Wedge, J. V. Daniels, Marcus John- 
son, George Bryant, E. F. Drake, C. F. Kindred. 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. ^.Gx 

Mississippi — B. K. Bruce, James Hill, George M. Bu- 
chanan, Haribee C. Carter, W. H. Kennon, George C. 
McKee, Henry C. Niles, Joshua R. Smith, George W. Gales, 
F. M. Libby, Samuel P. Hurst, W. W. Bell, Green C. Chan- 
dler, Charles W. Clarke, Richard F. Beck, R. H. Mont- 
gomery. 

Missouri — C. I. Filley, H. E. ^Havens, David Wagner, R. 
T. Van Horn, John A. Weber, Nicholas Berg, T, B. Rogers, 
J. A. Wheeler, John H. Pullman, Thomas Gallen, William 
Ballentine, James Lindley, J. G. Baker, T. A. Lowe, R. C. 
McBeth, W. E. Maynard, A. D. Jaynes, A. G. Hollenbeck, 
W. J. Terrell, L. C. Slavens, N. F. Essex, S. C. Closky, 
Thomas D. Neal, George Hall, G. J. Whiteman, H. N. Cook, 
H. N. Hiller, J. E, Adams, R. A. Bucker, Stuart Cartaner. 

Nebraska — J. W. Dawes, L. C. Crounse, William Gastin, 
J. L. Mitchell, N. Perringer, D. A. Lewis. 

Nevada — E. Strother, C. C. Stevenson, M. D. Foley, W. 
W. Bishop, J. J. Meigs, T. D. Edwards. 

New Hampshire — William E. Chandler, Ruel Durkee, 
David H. Buffum, Benjamin F. Prescott, Charles H. Murphy, 
Joel Eastman, Charles Holman, James G. Sturgis, Anson L. 
Brown, S. W. Hale. 

New Jersey — Judson Kilpatrick, George A. Halsey, Wil- 
liam J. Sewell, William Walter Phelps, C. H. Sinnickson, 
Samuel Hopkins, John S. Irick, John S. Schultz, John F. 
Babcock, Chilion Robbins, N. W. Voorhies, W. A. Stiles, H. 
L. Butler, A. A. Vance, E. L. Joy, A. P. Condit, James M. 
Gopsill, B. W. Throckmorton. 

New York — Roscoe Conklin, Chester A. Arthur, Alonzo 
B, Cornell, James D. Warren, John Birdsall, S. L. Hawkins, 
* James Jourdan, Amos F. Learned, F. A. Schroeder, Alber 
Daggett, Jacob Worth, Benjamin F. Tracey, Edwards Pierre- 
pont, E. W. Stoughton, Charles E. Cornell, DcWitt C. 
Wheeler, J. M. Patterson, Jr., J. J. O'Brien, J. D. Lawson, 
Charles Blaikie, Solon B. Smith, Bernard Biglin, Joel W. 
Mason, S. B. French, Thomas Murphy, Jacob Hess, W. H. 



3^4 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Robertson, J. W. Husted, L. F. Payne, S. B. Dutcher, M. 
D. Stivers, B. G. Wales, George H. Sharpe, Rufus H. King, 
Henry R. Pierson, C. P. Eaton, John M. Francis, Isaac V. 
Baker, Jr., W. W. Rockwell, O. Abell, Jr., W. S. Dickinson, 
H. R. James, Webster Wagner, George West, David Wilber, 
Ferris Jacobs, J. P. Douglass, S. Sylvester, E. H. Shelley, 
W. H. Comstock, George L. Case, C. L. Kendedy, D. 
McCarthy, James G. Belden, W. B. Woodin, J, B. Murray, 

F. O. Mason, G. N. Hicks, T. C. Piatt, O. W. Chapman, 
Justin S. Cole, C. J, Langdon, E. A. Frost, H. A. Bninner, 

G. G. Hoskins, J. E. Pound R. V. Pierce, John Nice, N. 
H. Allen, L. B. Sessions. 

North Carolina — W. P. Canady, D. H. Starbuck, J. H. 
Harris, Rufus Barringer, Poleman John, Samuel T. Carrow, 
Israel B. Abbott, C. Faison, O. H. Blocker, George W. Price, 
Isaac J. Young, Stuart Ellison, Thomas B. Keogh, J. H. 
Hardin, O. J. Spears, W. R. Myers, W. W. Rollins, D. C. 
Pearson- 

Onio-^William Dennison, Warner M. Bateman, James A. 
Garfield, Charles Foster, Benjamin Butterworth, Albert 
SchwiU, Henry Kessler, C. Fleischmann, D. W. McClung, 
A. R. Creamer, W. D. Bickham, F. G. Thompson, Joseph 
Lawrence, J. W. Conklin, J. H. Ritchie, M. M. Fourelle, 
Marcus Boggs, Alphonso Hart, C. B. Wright, J. F. Gowery, 
William C. Cooper, James Glover, I. F. Mack, D. M. Hark- 
ness, William Nash, David Willetts, F. C. Sessions, John 
Groce, A. W. Train, J. Buckingham, H. C. Hedges, S. H. 
Hunt, R. M. Stevenson, J. L. Dougherty, J. S. Pierce, J. D. 
Taylor, J. H. Tripp, A. W. Jones, W. H. Williams, L. A. 
Sheldon, Evan Morris, J. C. Beatty, S. T. Everett, James 
Burnett. ^ 

Oregon — J. H. Mitchell, D. K. Hanna, J. M. McCall, N. 
W. Scott, D. N. Ireland, O. P. Tompkinson. 

Pennsylvania — Matthew S. Quay, Linn Bartholomew, 
James McManes, Christopher L. Magee, William Elliott, W. 

> 

S. Douglass, W. R. Leeds, David PI. Lane, William L. Smith,' 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^ 5 c- 

David Mouat, W. Ellwood Rowan, H. Disston, Thomas J. 
Powers, Adam Albright, Amos Gartside, W. B. Waddell, C. 
N. Taylor, D. O. Hitner, Chester N. Farr, Samuel R. Deppin, 

A. J. Kaufmann, William K. Seltzer, H. J. Reeder, Harrison 
Bortz, S. V. Thompson, W. A. W. Grier, J. J. Albright, 
Alexander Farnham, Samuel A. Losch, William S. Morehead, 
J. D. Cameron, John K. Clement, O. D. Kinney, C. C. Jad- 
win, W. H. Armstrong, Thomas L. Kane, John Cessna, David 
Over, J. G. Isenberg, B. F. Wagenseller, James Hurst, John 
Hays, James A. Beaver, M. L. Brosius, George HufF, George 
S. M. Baile, W. C. Moreland, James D. McDevitt, William 

B. Rogers, James H. Lindsay, J. H. Harrah, John McKinley, 
Joseph Buffington, James E. Long, Thomas Robinson, John 
L Gordon, C. M. Reed, Harrison Allen. 

Rhode Island — John P. Sanborn, Thomas W. Chase, 
Isaac M. Potter, Almon K. Goodwin, Charles H. Handy, 
David L. Aldrich, William A. Price, Horace A. Jenckes. 

South Carolina — E. W. M. Mackey, Samuel Lee, E. M. 
Brayton, R. B. Elliott, D. D. McCall, W. A. Hayne, C. C. 
Bowen, W. N. Taft, W. M. Fine, C. M. Wilder, Samuel T. 
Poinier, Wilson Cook, W. F. Myers, W. J. Whipper. 

Tennessee — L. C. Houck, H. H. Harrison, J. M. Thorn- 
burg, David Nunn, R. R. Butler, Jesse T. Rogers, E. T. San- 
ford, J. N. Cordell, W. S. Tipton, W. T. Gate, H. L. W. 
Cheatham, J. S. Smith, W. H. Wisener, W. Y. Elliott, S. O. 
W. Brandon, W. H. Young, A. M. Hughes, Jr., B. A. J. 
Nixon, T. E. Muse, E. G. Rigely, W. M. Hall, H. Summer- 
ville, Larkin Williams, Fred H. Hunt. 

Tf^as. — E. J. Davis, Webster Flanagan, A. B. Norton, 
AV. ^'I. Holland, G. ^l. Dilley, William Chambers, A. G. 
Malloy, W. H. Hakes, C. C. Binckley, D. A. Robertson, J. 
G. Tracey, W. R. Chase, N. W. Cuney, R. A. Harber, A. 
Scimering, E. H. Terrell. 

Vermont. — John Gregory Smith, John W. Stewart, Fred- 
erick Billings, George W. Hooker, J. G. McCullough, L. 
'Bart. Cross, John B. Mead, Henry C. Belden, G= G. Bene- 
dict, C. S. Page. 



zee 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Virginia — Sheffey Lewis, Peter J. Carter, Joseph Jorgen 
sen, J. W. Poindexter, L. A. Stewart, John W. Woltz, Rob 
ert Norton, George E. Bowden, Otis H. Russell, Josiah 
Crump, W. L. Fernald, James D. Brady, H. C. Harris, W 
H. Pleasants, J. F. Wilson, W. R. Watkins, F. T. Ware 
John Donovan, William Brown, L. L. Lewis, H. O. Austin 
C. C. Thompkins. 

West Virginia— A. W. Campbell, S. P. McCormick, W 
J. Burley, John H. Riley, C. D. Hubbard, A. C. Moore, J 
T. Hope, J. M. Hagans, Z. D. Ramshell, L. A. Martin. 

Wisconsin — J. B. Cassidy, Thomas B. Scott, Edward 
Sanderson, M. Van Steenwyk, J. V. Quarles, Charles Palmer- 
ter, A. J. Turner, George E. Bryant, W. E. Carter, N. L. 
James, F. C. Winkler, E. M. Rogers, W. H. Hempsche- 
meyer, J. C. Wedge, Levi Howland, Philetus Sawyer, J. M. 
Rush, F. L. Gilson, Isaac Stevenson, S. W. Hunt. 

When the convention opened Its doors, the 
three great poHtlcal leaders who were expected to 
change every result, rather by opposition than ad- 
vocacy, were Senator Conkling, of New York, 
Senator Logan, of Illinois, and Senator Cameron, 
of Pennsylvania. These gentlemen were leaders 
of an alliance of the most formidable and acrcrres- 
sive character. Senator Cameron was absolute 
master of the Republican organization In Penn- 
sylvania, Senator Conkling had almost as firm a 
hold upon that of New York, and Senator Logan, 
though not quite so thoroughly monarch of Illi- 
nois, sat far more securely upon his self-estab- 
lished throne than any one Imagined. No one of 
these men could give himself the nomination, nor 
hand It over to anybody who would recognize the 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 26? 

g-iver as the only power behind the throne. 
Working together for a common end, to serve 
their common ambition for poHtical power, a vic- 
tory seemed easily possible. If they could not, 
like Caesar, Cassius and Pompey, divide " this 
great empire " between them, they might jointly 
govern it through a man of their own selection, 
and each be secured in the absolute patronage of 
a State, so great as to be an empire in itself. 

Ulysses S. Grant, already twice president, was 
the fast friend of these three who were deter- 
mined to nominate him for the presidency, whether 
it was the wish of the people or not. He was 
their choice, and they recognized no other law. 
The hieher law of the nation's will was nothinof 
to them. The State conventions had been adroitly 
managed, packed with Grant delegates, and with 
these the ereat leaders went to Chicaofo, to force 
Grant's candidacy. Arrayed against them were 
the friends of James G. Blaine, John Sherman, 
Elihu B. Washburne, Senator Windom, Senator 
Edmunds, and a number of other gentlemen, who 
were esteemed fit to fill the office of President of 
the United States. 

There was no waiting to begin the battle ; 
as fast as delegates and delegation body-guards 
arrived, they engaged at once. By Monday pre- 
ceding the Wednesday the convention assem- 
bled, Chicago was in a boil. The battle had 
opened in earnest. The city seemed transformed. 



368 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



it bubbled with an unknown excitement. Those 
who had witnessed every convention of the Re- 
pubHcan party, since It was a party, say that they 
never had seen such a seething mass of pohtlcal 
wranglers as gathered In and around the palatial 
Chicago hotels. Immense and numerous as these 
hotels are, they were crowded to the utmost. 
The mxore prominent of them were made dazzling 
as the noonday sun with the un-sunlike glare of 
electric lights. Statesmen, professional politicians, 
carpet-baggers, all sorts, sizes and colors of men, 
thronged the halls, dining-rooms, parlors, corri- 
dors and the stairs of acceptable rooms occupied 
as head-quarters of regular delegations, com- 
mittees, clubs, and every possible form of organi- 
zation that gave any promise of hindering or pro- 
moting particular candidates. Indeed, the whole 
battle seemed to be one of mean ambition, or 
meaner cupidity, and candidates were favored or! 
opposed, as a rule, by the ruck — not the great I 
men — by those who hoped to profit by their 
efforts. 

The first effort of the anti-Grant men was to 
break down the unit rule, by which the delegates 
from New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois were 
bound to the wish of Conkling, Cameron and Lo-j 
gan. A meeting of the National Committee wasj 
called, and all Interest at once centred in the pro- 
ceedlnofs. The corridors of the Palmer House, 
leading to the committee-room, were choked by 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^ 5g 

earnest, eager, anxious people. The meeting of 
the committee was secret. Senator Cameron pre- 
sided, and hardly had he called the committee to 
order before the following resolutions were offered 
by William E. Chandler of New Hampshire : 

Rcsolvedj That this committee approves ana ratifies the 
call for the approaching Republican National Convention, 
which was issued by its chairman and secretary, and which 
invites two delegates from each Congressional District, four 
delegates-at-large from each State, two from each Territory 
and two from the District of Columbia, to compose the con- 
vention. 

Resolved^ That this committee recognizes the right of each 
delegate in a Republican National Convention freely to cast 
and to have counted his individual vote therein, according to 
his own sentiments ; and, if he so decides, against any unit 
rule or other instructions passed by a State Convention, which 
right was conceded without dissent and was exercised in the 
conventions of iS6o and i86S, and was, after full debate, 
affirmed by the convention of 1876, and has thus become a 
part of the law of Republican Conventions, and until reversed 
by a convention itself, must remain a governing principle. 

The first resolution was adoptea unanimously. 
Senator Cameron then showed his hand, and ruled 
the second resolution out of order. An appeal 
from his decision he refused to entertain. At this 
there was much consternation amone the anti- 
Grant people, who for a moment seemed be- 
wildered.. Representative Frye, of Maine, In- 
quired of the chair where he had learned parlia- 
mentary law, and William E. Chandler announced 



370 



LPFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



that If the chairman would not pay any respect to 
the committee, the same power that made him 
chairman would remove him. Mr. Filley, of Mis- 
souri, came to the chairman's assistance in a short 
speech, that availed him nothing. The Issue was 
clear, Senator Cameron was determined on forcing 
the unit rule, and refusing to recognize any motion 
that would interfere with the enforcement of that 
rule. But, unfortunately for him, the majority of 
the committee were opposed to him. A commit- 
tee of six was appointed to nominate a temporary 
chairman, and the committee adjourned for a 
recess. 

During this the determined purpose of the anti- 
Grant men to depose Senator Cameron was made 
abundantly apparent. They considered the crisis 
reached, and when the committee again assembled 
they had determined to deprive Cameron of his 
power, or exact from him a promise. This plan 
was, however, abandoned. Senator Cameron re- 
maining obstinate in his position and refusing to 
give any promise that he would not enforce the 
rule, as the committee had it In their power to ap- 
point an acceptable chairman. At midnight the 
committee adjourned, the Hon. George F. Hoar, 
of Massachusetts, v/as chosen temporary chairman, 
he being acceptable to the Grant men. ' For further 
protection, a resolution was adopted before ad- 
journment, that should Mr. Cameron be unable, 
through sickness or any other cause, to present 



JAMES A. CARFIELB, ^Tl 

the- name of Mr. Hoar to the convention, Mr. 
Chandler, as chairman of the committee reporting 
his name, should do so. 

The excitement over these proceedings was 
intense, and all night long the heated partisans 
discussed Mr. Cameron's extraordinary ruling and 
arbitrary action as chairman of the National 
Committee. 

Eighteen of Mr. Cameron's own delegfation 
from Pennsylvania protested, and twenty-two of 
the New York deleofates made haste to write out 
and sign the following paper : 

The undersigned, delegates to the Republican National 
Convention, representing our several Congressional districts 
in the State of New York, desiring, above all, the success of 
the Republican party at the approaching election, and realiz- 
ing the hazard attending an injudicious nomination, declare 
our purpose to resist the nomination of General U. S. 
Grant by all honorable means. We are sincere in the con- 
viction, that in New York at least his nomination would en- 
sure defeat. We have a great battle to fight, and victory is 
within our reach, but we earnestly protest against entering 
the contest with a nomination which we regard as unwise and 
perilous. 

12. AV. H. Robertson, 22. John P. Douglas, 

26. W. B. Woodin, Sidney Sylvester, 

33. Lorin B. Sessions, 13. John B. Dutcher, 

14. W. D. Stivers, 19. Henry R. James, 

20. Webster Wagner, Wells S. Dickson, 

George West, 12. James W. Husted, 

3. Albert Dagget, 21. Ferris Jacobs, Jr., 

14. B. G. Wales, 18. Oliver Abel, 

I, Simeon Shawkins, 33. N. M. Allen. 
John Birdsall, 



^72 Z/i^^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

The interest in the situation grew deeper every 
hour, the lines were sharper drawn, the leaders 
bent more stenuously to their wheels, upon which so 
many of them were destined to be broken. The 
lono- nio-ht of war and Avords faded into a morn- 
ing that promised relief to none, and victory to 
some leader yet in the shadow of obscurity. The 
early morning was signalized by an open revolt — 
hitherto asserted by the anti-Grant men, and 
denied by their opponents — in the Pennsylvania 
delegation, headed by Mr. James McManes. 
Their protest was similar to that of the New York 
delegation, and was signed by the following: 

Delegate-at-large — ^James McManes. 

1. W. S. Douglass, lo. Harrison Bortz, 

2. W. R. Leeds, 20. M. L. Brosius, 
4.' W. E. Rowan, 24. J. McKioley, 

5. Hamilton Disston/ 18. B. F. Wagenseller, 
25. J. E. Long, J. G. Isenberg, 
19. John Hays, 8. S. R. Deppin, 

12. Alexander Farnham, 7. C. N. Taylor, 

15. O. D. Kenney, 11. W. A. W. Grier, 

C. C. Jadwin, S. Y. Thompson, 

6. W: B. Waddell, 7. P. Wanger (sub). 
A. Gartside, 

Conkling, Cameron and Logan, and their ad- 
herents, had now reached a deadlock with the op- 
position. The situation was bitter in its intensity, 
and prodigal in stubbornness. An attempt at 
relief was made by General Chester A. Arthur 
and ex-Secretary Gorham, of California, who, in 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^^ ^i 

behalf of the Grant men, submitted the following 
proposition: 

"That Senator Hoar should be accepted as 
temporary chairman of the convention, and that 
no attempt should be made to enforce the unit 
rule, or have a test vote in the convention, until 
the committee on credentials had reported, when 
the unit-rule question should be decided by the 
convention in its own way." 

A lone conference ensued amonof the anti- 
Grant men to debate this proposition, and late in 
the afternoon this peace proposition w^as accepted 
by all parties, and it was further agreed that the 
reo-ular delegates from Illinois and Louisiana 
should be admitted to participate in the temporary 
oro-anization, and then take their chances with the 
committee on credentials. 

Amid the excitement and turmoil of these pre- 
liminary struggles, the spectator will have noticed 
one incident of significance — the bringing forward 
as a candidate for the second honor on the Repub- 
lican ticket a colored man — Senator B. K. Bruce, 
of Mississippi. He was serenaded by his friends 
from the Southern States, enthusiastic speeches 
were made in his favor, and his " boom " assumed 
quite respectable proportions. The attempt, how- 
ever, met with but little encouragement — the time 
for a parti-colored ticket has apparently not yet 
arrived. 



374 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



THE BATTLE BEGUK. 



WEDNESDAY, June 2d, dawned in Chi 
cago, amid an animation, a stir, a 
mighty something in the air, only felt 
upon great occasions. That morning the conven- 
tion met, and the hours before noon were devoted 
to a grand struggle for tickets — a struggle that, 
in its brief intensity, quite overshadowed the 
greater issue that hung upon the burdened air. 
When Chlcaoro bells chimed hio^h noon, there were 
not a thousand people in Exposition Hall, and 
they resembled scattered pilgrims at a deserted 
shrine. Not for long, however. The crowds 
poured into the building like the whirl of autumn 
leaves before the wind, and scattered to their 
places. An hour later more than ten thousand 
were within the building, and massed in every 
Inch of room. 

By this time the delegates were due, and the 
eager spectators craned their necks to catch a 
glimpse of the early birds. One who was there 
thus describes the asscmblincr of the convention : 

"The Alabama delegation was first to file In 
as a body, and its two rows of President-makers 



JAMES A. GARFIEID. 07 r 

nestled down in front of the stage, displaying 
every shade of complexion, from the pure white to 
the genuine African. Arkansas fell In greatly be- 
hind Alabama, with the familiar face of ex-Senator 
Dorsey at the head. Meantime the places allotted 
to the various States were being rapidly filled up 
by the rank and file of the delegations. But the 
leaders were slow In getting to their respective 
commands. The dignitaries w^ho had been as- 
signed to the seats for distinguished guests began 
to swarm In, and Frye, of Maine, and Chandler, of 
New Hampshire, buzzed them as they gathered In 
little knots to discuss the situation. General 
Beaver, chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation, 
swunof himself alonof the side aisle on his crutches 
and sat down at the post of honor for his State, 
with Quay close by his side, and Cessna flitted 
hither and thither as If uncertain that anything 
would be well done unless he gave It a helping 
hand. McManes dropped In late, a little paled by 
Illness, but with all his Scotch-Irish doesfedness 
written In his face. Jewell and Creswell, both of 
the Grant Cabinet, came In about the same time, 
ihe first hoping to look down on the defeat of his 
old chief from the gallery of distinguished guests, 
and the other marshallnor his delegfation to g^ive 
him back his Old Commander. 

" Both look fresh and rosy as they did when 
they hugged their portfolios and enjoyed the hol- 
low, homage that Is paid to honor at the capitaL 
22 



11^^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The tall, sturdy form of 'Long- John' Wentworth 
towered over all as he joined his delegation. He 
is stouter, redder, grayer and balder than eight 
years ago, when he rebelled against Grant. He 
had returned to hi'S first love, and now wilts down 
his collars early in the morning working and cheer- 
ing for the Silent Man. . 

*' just when the building had pretty nearly filled 
up there was a simultaneous huzza throughout 
the hall and galleries, and It speedily broke out in 
a hearty applause. The tall and now silvered 
plume of Conkling was visible in the aisle, and he 
strode dov/n to his place at the head of his delega- 
tion with the majesty of an emperor. He recog- 
nized the compliment by a modest bow, without 
lifting his eyes to the audience, and took his seat 
as serenely as if on a picnic and holiday. He has 
aged rapidly during the last year, and his once 
golden locks are thinned and whitened, while hard 
lines dispel the brightness of his finely-chiseled 
face. The Grant men seemed to be more com- 
fortable when they found him by their side and 
evidently ready for the conflict. The sable Grant 
men from the South, who believe Grant to be their . 
political savior, look upon Conkling as his prophet, I 
and they worship him as a demigod. Logan'sJ 
swarthy features, flowing mustache and Indian 
hair were next visible on the eastern aisle, but he ' 
stepped to the head of his delegation so quietly 
that he escaped a special welcome. He sat as if 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^>j 

in sober reflection for a few moments, and then 
hastened over to Conkhng^ to perfect their counsel 
on the eve of battle. The two senatorial leaders 
held close conference until the bustle about the 
chair gave notice that the opposing* lines were 
about to becrin to feel each other and test their 
position. 

" Cameron had just stepped upon the platform 
with the elasticity of a boy, and his youthful but 
strongly-marked face was recognized at once. 
There was no applause. They all knew that he 
never plays for the galleries, and that cheers are 
wasted upon him. The man who can bring him 
votes when he Is in want of them, can make his 
cold gray eyes kindle and his usually stolid 
features toy with a smile, but no man in the land 
more justly estimates the crowd that ever cheers 
the coming guest than does Cameron. He quiet- 
ly sat down for ten minutes, although the time fo^ 
calling the convention to order had passed by an 
hour, and he looked out upon the body so big 
with destiny for himself and his Grant associates. 
As he passed by he was asked: 'What of the 
battle ?' To which he answered : * We have 
three hundred to start with, and we will stick/ 
until we win.* ' 

" It was said with all the determination that his 
positive manner and expression could add to lan- 
guage, and it summed up his whole strategy. 
While he waited the vacant places were fast 



37^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



filling up. Generals Sewell and Kilpalrlck took 
their posts at the head of the New Jersey men, 
and just behind them the rosy faces of Garfield 
and Foster, and the tall, spare form of Dennison 
were holding- a hasty last council of the Sherman 
wing of the opposition. The youthful, olive- 
shaded features of Bruce, of Mississippi, were 
visible in the centre of his delegation, and the 
dream of the Vice-Presidency made him restless 
and anxious. 

"At ^N^ minutes after one Cameron quickly rose 
from his chair, advanced to the front, and brought 
his gavel down gently upon the speaker's desk. 
At once the confused hum of voices began to still 
and the nearly ten thousand people present set- 
tled into perfect order. Cameron stood for half 
a minute after silence had been obtained, appar- 
ently free from all embarrassment, and finally said, 
in a clear voice: 

" 'The convention will come to order, and will be 
opened with prayer.' " 

After the last words had fallen from the lips of 
the clergyman and a moment more had been 
spent in silence. Senator Cameron rose and said : 

''Gentlemen of the Convention: Before the 
'convention enters upon the important duties that 
have called it together, I ask your attention for a 
single moment. During the canvass just ended 
there has been manifested in many sections of the 
country considerable bitterness, which,. I trust, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



Zl^\ 



will entirely disappear before entering upon the 
grave duties devolving upon us. Let there be 
but one motive croverninof our action and let that 
be a determination to place in nomination the 
strongest possible candidates — men strong in 
themselves, strong in the confidence and affec- 
tions of the people, and men who will command 
the respect of the civilized world. Our countr}^, 
of which we are justly proud, has grown so 
rapidly in population, wealth and influence during 
the existence of the Republican party that 
we have attained a position as one of the 
leading powers of the world. We cannot longer 
be satisfied with our Isolation. Recoenlzinpf the 
changed condition, we must place In position men 
whose familiarity with other nations will enable 
them to direct our affairs so that we will take the 
lead in commerce as v/e have In ao^rlculture and 
manufactures. Do not for a moment doubt the 
strenr^th of our Institutions. Thev have been 
tried In blood and came from the contest better, 
stronger and purer than the most ardent patriot 
dared to hope. No combination of circumstances, 
no coterie of Individuals, no personal ambition can 
ever prevail against the Intelligence and inborn 
love of liberty which are Implanted In the hearts 
oi Americans. When the nominations are made 
and the convention has completed Its work, let 
there be but one sentiment animating all earnest, 
sincere and unselfish Republicans, and let that be 



38o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



that each shall vie with the other in carrying our 
grand old party through the coming contest to 
victory." 

Senator Cameron then presented the name of 
Senator George F. Hoar as temporary chairman. 
Applause greeted the announcement, which was a 
distinct defeat of the senator who announced it. 
No objection was raised, and Senator Hoar came 
upon the platform, escorted by ex-Governor Davis, 
of Texas, Congressman Frye, of Maine, and Reve- 
nue Commissioner Raum, of Illinois. 

The chairman ' immediately delivered the cus- 
tomary speech, in which he grandly arraigned the 
Democratic party for its sins of omission and com- 
mission. It confronted the Republican party to- 
day, unchanged in purpose, in temper, or in char- 
acter, and united in nothing else, proposing no 
other measure of policy than war upon the safe- 
guards which the nation had thrown around the 
purity of elections. Then he continued : 

**The Democratic party sees nothing of evil, 
except that a free man shall cast a free vote under 
'die protection of tlie nation. In Louisiana and 
Mississippi the Democratic party is the accomplice 
of the White League and the Ku-Klux. In South 
Carolina it took the honest ballots from tlie box 
and stuffed tissue ballots in their places. In New 
York it issued fraudulent naturalization papers, 
sixty thousand in number. In Maine its ambitious 
larceny tried to pilfer a whole State, and in Dcla- 



JAMES A. GARFIEl ^g I 

ware it stood accomplice by the whipping-post. 
The Republican party has no such miserable his- 
tory. It speaks of rebellion subdued, slaves 
freed, of great public works constructed, of debt 
diminished, of sound currency restored, of a flag 
floating long and everywhere honored and re- 
spected. The key-note of every Republican plat- 
form, the principle of every Republican union, is 
found in respect for the dignity of the individual 
man. Until that becomes the pervading principle 
of the Republic, from Canada to the Gulf, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, the Republican mission 
is not ended ; the Republican party lives by faith 
that every man within the borders of the Repub- 
lic may dwell secure in a happy home, may cast 
his equal vote and have it counted, and may send 
his children at the puplic charge to a free school. 
Until these things come to pass, the mission of 
the Republican party is not ended, nor its conflict 
with its ancient adversary ended." 

Applause followed. When it had ceased, 
Messrs. J. H. Roberts, of Illinois, and Christopher 
Ma^ee, of Pittsburcr, were elected secretaries. 

Eugene Hale then got up from the midst of the 
Maine delegation and moved for a call of the 
States and the naming of the several members of 
the committees on permanent organization, reso- 
lutions, rules and credentials. This completed, 
Congressman Fr)^e, of Maine, from the platform, 
desired that Utah should be represented upon the 



n 



^ 2 Z//:/^' AA'£f PUBLIC CAREER OF 



credentials committee, and so moved, as it had 
been left off. 

Upon this Senator Conlding took the floor, and 
In the midst of applause indicated with a flourish 
that if the hght had opened he was ready for it. 
He objected to Utah, as he understood it was a 
part of the agreement for the preliminary organi- 
zation that it should not be called. He made a 
point of order against it, and when that was over- 
ruled he asked if it v/ould be in order to put in 
Louisiana. 

Mr. Frye here interrupted, explaining that he 
had the authority of the secretary of the National 
Committee for saying that Utah had been left off 
by mistake ; and he did not suppose a Republican 
convention would refuse to correct a mistake. 
Utah thereupon secured its representation. 

The roll of States was called for notices of 
contests, of which there were a good many, and an 
adjournment until Thursday morning at eleven 
was carried on motion of Senator ConkliuQ-. 

The adjournment was necessary in order to 
give the various committees an opportunity to get 
to w^ork and complete their reports. The com- 
mittees — now historical — were composed as 
follows: 

States, Permanent Organization. Rules and Business. 

Alabama Lenjamin T. Turner J. II. Thomasson. 

Arkansas ...O. P. Snyder J. II. Johnson. 

California John Mansfield E. A. Davis. 

Colorado John A Ellet M. N. Negroeve, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^g^ 

States. Permanent Organization. Rules and Business. 

Connecticut John M. Douglas Daniel Chadwick. 

Delaware Christian Febiger Benjamin Burton. 

Florida B. J. Shipman James Dean. 

Georgia Madison Davis R. D. Lock. 

Illinois Richard Whiting Andrew W. Metcalf. 

Indiana J. J. Todd Bryo W. Langdon. 

Iowa, John W, Sharp S. M. Clark. 

Kansas S. S. Benedict George H. Case. 

Kentucky Morris C. Hutchins W. G. Hunton. 

Louisiana Contest Contest. 

Maine L. G. Dawnes , Llewellyn Powers. 

Mar}'land Charles T. Westcott Jacob J. Weaver, Jr. 

Massachusetts William B. Hopkins Robert M. Morse,Jr. 

Michigan E. C. Watkins J. H. Chandler. 

Minnesota J. V. Daniels E. F. Drake. 

Mississippi James Hill H. C. Carter. 

Missouri Luther C. Slavens Thomas B Rodgers. 

Nebraska V. L. Bierbower J. L. Mitchell. 

Nevada E. Strother W. W. Bishop. 

New Hampshire S. W. Hale James G. Sturgis. 

New Jersey James Gopsill C. H. Sinnickson. 

New York Henry R. Pierson George H. Sharpe. 

North Carolina Rufus Barringer O. H. Blocker. 

Ohio Alphonso Hart James A. Garfield. 

Oregon O. P. Tompkins D. C. Ireland. 

Pennsylvania Howard J. Reeder Wm. H. Armstrong. 

Rhode Island Almon R. Goodwin Thomas W. Chase. 

South Carolina W. J, Whipper Charles M. Wilder. 

Tennessee W. E. Cate J. M. Cordell. 

Texas W. H. Hokes William Chambers. 

Vermont Henry C. Belden John B. Mead. 

Virginia H. Clay Harris W. R. Watkins. 

West Virginia J. H. Riley A. C. Moore. 

Wisconsin : Wm. E. Carter A. J. Turner. 

Arizona None J. S. Vosburg. 

Dakota None C. T. McCoy. 

District of Columbia None John F. Cook. 

Idaho George L, Shoup George L. Shoup. 

Moiitana Robert E. Fisk Henry M. Blake, 

New ""Mexico William Breeden Wm. L. Ryneson. 

Utah........ V. L. C. Silvos .-. None. 



3H 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



States. Permanent Organization. Rules and Business. 

Washington Thomas L. Minor Thomas II. Brents., 

Wyoming W. A. Carter None. 



States. Credentials. Resolutions, 

Alabama , Isaac Heyman Wm. Youngblood. 

Arkansas Powell Clayton II. S. Holland. 

California Creed Haymond D. S. Payne. 

Colorado George T. Clark Amos Slack. 

Connecticut Samuel C. Fessendon II. C. Robinson. 

Delaware James R. Lofland Levi G. Clark. 

Florida Joseph E. Lee F. C. Humphries, 

Georgia Edward Belcher A. E. Buck. 

Illinois Green B. Raum E. A. Storrs. 

Indiana B. K. Higginbottom George W. Fridley. 

Iowa J. S. Clarkson George G. Perkins. 

Kansas B. F. Simpson R, R. W. Perkins. 

Kentucky Richard B. Stoll A. T. Wood. 

Louisiana Contest Contest. 

Maine A. A. Stroul Lewis Barker, 

Maryland William J. Hooper J. Morrison Harris. 

Massachusetts Charles R. Codman James W. Barker. 

Michigan Homer D. Conger George A. Farr. 

Minnesota E. M. Sabin D. Sinclair. 

Mississippi F. M. Libbey Charles W. Clark. 

Missouri Harrison E. Haven R. T. Van Home. 

Nebraska N. W. Passenger J. W. Dawes. 

Nevada M. D. Foley T. D. Edwards. 

New Hampshire Wm. E. Chandler Charles Holman. 

New Jersey Chellian Robbins William W. Phelps. 

New York Benjamin F. Tracey Edwards Pierrepont. 

North Carolina George W. Price, Jr James A. Harris. 

Ohio Warren M. Bateman Rodney M. Stimson. 

Oregon John H. Mitchell PI. W. Scott. 

Pennsylvania John Cessna W. B, Rogers. 

Rhode Island John P. Sanborn Charles H, Ilandley. 

South Carolina William N. Taft D. D. McCall. 

Tennessee J. M. Thornburg Horace II. Harrison, 

Texas Webster Flannagan J.G.Tracy. 

Vermont John W. Stewart George G. Benedict, 

Virginia ., ...C. C. Tojnpkins, James D, B^ady. 

West Virginia..! J. M. Hagan C. D. Hubbard. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. -7g^ 

States. Credentials. Resolutions. 

^Yisconsin Ed. Sanderson Joseph V. Quarles. 

Arizona R. C. McCormick J. S. Vosburg. 

Dakota Porter Warner C. T. McCoy. 

District of Columbia Sayles J. Bowen John F. Cook, 

Idaho George L. Shoup Jones W. Erown. 

IMontana Henry M. Blake Robert E. Fisk. 

New Mexico William Breeden William L. Ryneson. 

Utah None Presley Denney. 

Washin^^ton T. L. Minor Thomas H. Brents. 

Wyoming W. A. Carter W. A. Carter. 



386 



LIFE ANl} J'UIILIC CAREER OP 



E 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE SECOND DAY'S FIGHTING. 

XPOSITION HALL, as the convention 
"^ began assembling on Thursday morning, 
presented much the same appearance that 
it did the day before. The attendance was, how- 
ever, much larger, and the anti-third-term people 
had made arrangements during the previous 
evening to secure a greater representation in the 
spectators' seats, and a better location for their 
sympathizers. 

The delegates, as the hour of eleven approached, 
straggled slowly in. Many of them came fatigued 
from committee work, and other matters not offi- 
cial but incidental to a gathering of the kind. By 
the hour for assembling, every seat was occupied 
in the galleries, and the floor was unusually ani- 
mated. There v/as a great deal of running round 
amone the deleirates and their friends, but the 
only outburst before the call to order was on the 
first day, when Conkling came down the aisle at a 
a quarter to twelve. He was enthusiastically 
cheered, and moved slowly to his seat, his tall 
fiorure risincj above those who stood aside to let 
him pass'. He wa*s rite ll'dn of die hour and tdie 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. -,^y 

chief curiosity of the multitude was always to see 
the silver-bearded senator from New York. 

It was within a few minutes of hiofh noon, when 
Senator Hoar brought down his gavel upon his 
bouquet-embellished desk. A momentary confu ^ 
sion was caused in the removal of outsiders, who 
crowded into every possible place. All knew 
that the Committee on Credentials, which had in 
hand the Important preliminary work of the con- 
vention, would not be ready to report for several 
hours. Consequently, as soon as the prayer was 
concluded, Senator Conkling moved that a recess 
be taken until six o'clock. This motion was re- 
o^arded as an indication that he was not altogether 
prepared for any test vote, but the fact was it was 
'mpossible to reach a test vote until it came to 
the report of the Committee on Credentials. 
Eugene Hale, however, backed by the cheers of 
the gallery, smtagonlzed the motion for a recess, 
and supported his wish with the precedent that 
four years before the convention had effected the 
permanent organization while waiting the report 
on contested seats. 

Senator Conkling dropped Into the sarcastic in 

his reply, congratulated the convention that It hac' 

heard a speech from the gentleman from Maine^ 

^ and manacred to sneer at New Encrland as a sec- 

tion chiefly peopled by orators. 

Mr. Hale returned to the charee, and made 
greet polntsj d>at in Congress business did not wait- 



388 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



for the settlement of contests. For this Mr. Hale 
was rewarded by a wild burst of applause. The 
crowds were ready and delighted to cheer, and 
when Hale went on to say that if he appeared in 
better humor that morning than the gendeman 
from New York, the great audience understood 
the reason why. The applause passed beyond all 
bounds. It became a gale of hurrahs. 

Mr. Conkling did not attempt a reply to this 
and a vote beine secured on his motion for a re- 
cess, it was lost. For several minutes after this It 
was not quite certain what would be the next step. 
Then Joy, of Michigan, sent up a resolution, to the 
effect that the contestants from Illinois should be 
allowed to be heard before the convention by such 
counsel as they should select. This raised quite 
a storm, and a motion to lay It on the table was 
made. This was submitted to a viva voce vote, 
and declared lost. A roll-call was ordered to sat- 
isfy the demands of some rash delegates, but this 
was not acceptable to either side. Joy's motion 
was then w^ithdrawn at the request of Eugene 
Hale. 

Later, General Sewell, of New Jersey, Intro- 
duced a motion that the Committee on Permanent 
Organization be Instructed to bring in Its report. 
This was adopted. The report continued Senator 
Hoar as permanent president, and provided a 
vice-president and secretary from each State. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^So 

After the report was read and corrected, Senator 
Hoar said: 

" Gentlemen of the Convention : You have 
manifested in the choice you have made for per- 
manent presiding ofhcer a disposition to a wise 
economy in the matter of opening speeches. 
[Laughter.] One good reason occurs to me for 
the selection which you have made, and that Is, 
that having heard one speech from me, you have, 
for reasons entirely satisfactory to each delegate, 
no Inclination to hear another opening soeech." 
[Laughter and applause.] 

The men from Maine were still anxious to go 
on with business, and Frye put a motion that the 
Committee on Rules be requested to report. 
This brought General Sharpe to his feet — the 
New York member of the committee — who said 
he had been instructed to prepare a minority re- 
port, and as the committee was in session until 
within a few minutes of the assembling of the 
convention, he had no time to do so. He also 
announced it was understood that a report would 
not be made until the Committee on Credentials 
had presented their report. The chairman of the 
Committee on Rules was then called upon by Mr. 
Frye. 

The chairman was General Garfield. As he 
mounted a chair to have a better opportunity, he 
was greeted with the most enthusiastic applause 
y^t heard in the convention. It was a magnificent, 



390 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



spontaneous tribute to his worth and universally- 
recognized public services. General Garfield said 
the statement of the gentleman from New York 
was true. This satisfied ever^^body. Frye with- 
drew his motion to propose a recess until five P. M. 

Senator Conkling was immediately on his feet 
to coneratulate his friends from Maine that so 
much had been accomplished. It was a matter to 
stir the heart of every patriot to find the conven- 
tion, in its organized state, rising in its might, on 
being able to accomplish the momentous, the criti- 
cal, the portentous business that had been accom- 
plished since his (Conkling's) motion to adjourn 
had been made. Mr. Frye returned the challenge, 
and drew wild cheering from the galleries by ex- 
pressing his thanks to the distinguished gentleman 
from New York, who, he hoped, would be as will- 
ing and as ready to congratulate Maine at the 
conclusion of the convention. 

There was no reply to make to this clever sally 
of the man from Maine, and the motion for a re- 
cess was adopted without dissent. The conven- 
tion stood adjourned until five P. M. 

It was half-past that hour, however, before the 
convention came to order again. The galleries 
were packed as before with interested spectators. 
As soon as the convention was ready for business, 
Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, announced that the Com- 
mittee on Credentials would not be ready to re- 
port at that session, and moved that the Commibtee 



JAM-ES A. GARFIELD. ^^I 

on Rules be requested to report, so that the con- 
vention could proceed to business. This again 
precipitated a clash between the opposing fac- 
tions. Senator Loimn said the committee had 
agreed to defer their report on rules and order of 
business until after the action on contested seats. 
(This, as it will be remembered by the reader, was 
for the purpose of delaying everything decisive 
until such time as all the delegates were in the 
hall, the Grant men hoping to gain by the action 
of the credentials committee). If the convention 
desired victory for its work, It ought not to raise 
too hastily the axe to the heads of their brethren. 
The rules ought not to be adopted before they 
knew who were entided to seats as representa- 
tives in the body, especially as one of the rules to 
be reported would limit the speakers to five min- 
utes each. Let the compact be kept that was 
agreed to by members of the committee, and let 
the consideration of the rules be deferred undl the 
report of the Committee on Credentials was made. 
He urged the withdrawal of the motion. [Cries 
of "No."] Some gentlemen, he said, cried "no." 
Was it because they were determined not to stand 
by the agreement of the committee ? Did they 
desire to ride rouorh-shod over members ? 

The Associated Press report of this debate, 
which led to the first test vote between the Grant 
and anti-Grant men, continues it from this point 

as follows : 
23 



■^Q2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

" Mr. Henderson replied that he was glad to 
learn the sentiments of the distinguished gentle- 
man from Illinois. They would gratify the whole 
country. From no gentleman was he more glad 
to hear than from him that there must be no rough 
riding over this convention. [Tumultuous ap- 
plause.] He was glad to see the contending 
columns here coming together in the field of fair 
play. [Applause.] The gentleman asked why 
this haste ? He, on the contrary, asked, why this 
delay ? [Applause.] The chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Rules indicated here this morning 
that there was no compact made in said commit- 
tee, such as Mr. Loofan had asserted. On the 
contrary, he said he was ready to report, but the 
convention, by general concurrence, took a recess 
to give a minority of the committee the time he 
asked to prepare a minority report. But now the 
convention was organized and ready for work, and 
he must insist on his motion to proceed to busi- 
ness. In conclusion he stated, on authority of a 
Kentucky member of the committee, who signed 
the minority report, that it was in fact ready for 
being reported this morning. 

"Mr. Boutwcll, of Massachusetts, inquired of the 
chairman of the Committee on Rules whether it was 
true that they would recommend the adoption of the 
five-minute rule in the debate on contested seats. 

"The Kentucky member of the committee arose, 
and announced as a misrepresentation Mr. Hen- 



JAxMES A. GARFIELD. ^q-. 

derson's statement that the minority report was 
ready this morning. 

"Another committeeman, rising, shouted excit 
edly that Mr. Henderson's statement was accurate 
and true. [Applause and excitement.] 

"Mr. Boutwell, resuming, said that he would 
vote against the pending motion if the five-minute 
rule was to be applied to arguments on the ques- 
tion of contested seats. 

'*Mr. Harrison said, though he differed with Mr. 
Logan on most of the questions, here he was with 
him in opposition to the five-minute rule in the 
discussion of the title of representatives to their 
seats [applause], but he was not in favor of in- 
definite and unreasonable and endless debate to 
tire everybody out. Even in that issue there 
ought to be some agreement on this point which 
would be fair and just to all parties. 

'*Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, said the arguments 
presented against the five-minute rule would be 
all right and proper and fair for consideration after 
the report was made. It would then be subject 
to discussion and amendment. He and his asso- 
ciates had no desire to take unfair advantage of 
any one, but he wanted the business to proceed, 
and the way to do these things was to receive the 
report and act upon it. 

"Mr. Clarke, of Iowa, said at the proper time 
he would himself move to except the credentials 
discussion from the five-minute limitation, and 



394 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



pledging the entire Iowa delegation to support It. 
[Applause.] 

"Mr. Sharpe, of New York, said his minority 
report was now ready, and It was signed by rep- 
resentatives of nine States, whose vote was neces- 
sary to the success of the RepubHcan party If In 
the coming contest It was to succeed. The com- 
mittee had agreed to postpone the enforcement 
of the five-minute rule until the composition of the 
convention was decided. If that agreement was 
not unanimous, It had been at all events reached 
w^ithout a dissenting voice. He now moved to 
amend the motion by ordering the Committee on 
Credentials to make its report. 

"Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, who was received with 
a storm of applause, said that there was no ground 
for any charge of bad faith by anybody In the 
Committee on Rules. He did not understand 
that any such charge was made. The fact was 
that the committee agreed that they would not, of 
their own motion, present their report until after 
the Committee on Contested Seats had reported ; 
but whenever the convention chose to order the 
report from his committee, the latter had no other 
duty but to obey. He said, also, that the pro- 
posed rules were so drawn as to leave to the con- 
vention the power to extend any speaker's time 
beyond five minutes whenever It should so choose, 
even though the general limitation of each of the 
speakers should be fixed at five minutes. 



JAMES A. CrARFIELD. ^q- 

"Mr. Conklinof said that some hours ag-o the 
convention had adjourned until five o'clock, for the 
purpose of giving the Committee on Credentials 
time to report. The meaning of the recess was, 
that when the convention came togfether ao^ain the 
Committee on Credentials would make its report. 
He had been told by members of that committee 
that they were ready to report — not on one or two 
or three cases, but nearly every case referred to 
it. Why should not that committee make such 
report as It was ready to make, and let the con- 
vention pass upon it? He submitted that the 
good faith and good understanding of all con- 
cerned would be promoted and observed by pro- 
ceeding now to consider that report of the Com- 
mittee on Contested Seats. 

"Mr. Henderson, of Iowa, replied that a good 
reason why the amendment should not prevail was 
the fact, that while the Committee on Rules had 
finished Its work and was ready to report, the 
Committee on Credentials had not completed their 
work, and would probably not do so before to- 
morrow morning, and until then could not be here 
themselves to explain and sustain their own action. 

"The chair stated that the question was first 
upon Mn Sharpe's motion to amend so as to In- 
struct the Committee on Contested Seats to 
report. 

"Mr. Sharpe asked that the question be taken 
by yeas and. nays, and the chair, exercising his 



'^giJ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

own discretion in the absence of any adopted rules, 
so ordered." 

The roll was then called and Alabama led off 
with 19 yeas. When this vote was announced a 
delegate from that State rose and said he wished 
to vote in the neQ^ative. 

Senator Hoar: "If the gentleman wishes to 
vote 'no' his vote will be received and recorded." 

At this announcement, which was an out-spoken, 
■ manly declaration against the obnoxious unit rule 
and one of the best principles of political faith that 
the Republican party ever affirmed — the absolute 
Inviolability of every man's share in the govern- 
ment of the governed — the convention sent up a 
great shout led by the galleries. This was ap- 
plause worth listening to, the echo of which went 
through every State with the rapidity of great and 
good news. 

Alabama was therefore recorded ''Yeas 18, 
Noes I," and the vote w^as continued thus: 

Arkansas — Yeas, i 2 ; California — Noes, i 2 : Col- 
orado — Yeas, 6; Connecticut — Noes 12; Dela- 
ware — Noes, 6; Florida — Yeas, 6; Georgia — 
Yeas, 6; Noes, 16; Illinois — Yeas, 42 ; Indiana — 
Yeas, 6 ; Noes, 23 ; Iowa — Noes, 22 ; Kansas — 
Noes, 10. Kentucky announced 24 yeas. 

A Kentucky delegate arose and said there were 
delecrates from that State w^ho desired to vote no. 
There were four stalwarts who desired their votes 
recorded "no." [Applause and hisses.] 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



397 



Because of the delecrates' excited and boisterous 
manner the chair ruled that all debate on any- 
thing else than correction of the vote be out of order. 

The chairman of the Kentucky delegation here 
rose and said he would then give the names of 
the four, but just then Senator Conkling went up 
to him and said a word, which led him to foreeo 
his purpose and take his seat. Then the four 
Kentucky dissenters stood upon their chairs In the 
presence of the convention amid great applause. 
The vote of Kentucky was then recorded as 20 
ayes and 4 noes. Maine, 14 noes; Maryland 7 
ayes, 8 noes; Massachusetts, 7 ayes, 17 noes; 
Michigan, i aye, 20 noes ; Minnesota, 3 ayes, 6 
noes ; Mississippi, 8 ayes, 7 noes ; Missouri, 29 
ayes, i no ; Nebraska, 6 noes ; Nevada, 6 noes ; 
New Hampshire, 10 noes; New Jersey, 18 noes; 
New York — Mr. Conkling, by instructions of his 
delegation, cast 47 ayes, 23 noes ; North Carolina, 

5 ayes, 15 noes; Ohio, 3 ayes, 41 noes; Oregon^ 

6 noes; Pennsylvania, 29 ayes, 23 noes, Rhode 
Island, 8 noes ; South Carolina, 7 ayes, 5 noes ; 
Tennessee, 1 5 ayes, 7 noes ; Texas, 9 ayes, 7 noes ; 
Vermont, 10 ayes; Virginia, 11 ayes, 8 noes; 
West Virginia, 10 noes; Wisconsin, 2 ayes, 18 
noes ; Arizona, 2 noes ; Dakota, i aye, i no ; Dis- 
trict of Columbia, 2 ayes ; Idaho, 2 noes ; Mon- 
tana, 2 noes ; New Mexico, 2 noes ; Utah, 2 noes ; 
Washington, 2 noes ; Wyoming, 2 noes. Total — 
Ayes, 316; noes, 407. 



398 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Pennsylvania asked to cast two additional votes 
aye of delegates who had just arrived. This gave 
Pennsylvania 31 ayes to 23 noes. Michigan cor- 
rected its votes to I aye, and 2 1 noes. 

1 Hus corrected, the chair announced the result 
— yeas, 316; nays, 406. Mr. Sharpe's amend- 
ment was rejected. 

The result, an unquestioned and overwhelming 
defeat for the Grant forces, was received with 
tumultuous applause In the galleries and not a 
little pleasure among the 406 victors on the floor. 
Forjt showed just exactly how much Grant could 
get on any one ballot and demonstrated beyond 
peradventure that If the opponents of the third- 
term stood together they could at any time defeat 
their enemies. 

The question now recurring upon the original 
motion, Mr. Brandagee, of Connecdcut, got up 
and said he did so In the interest of order, 
harmony and peace. He had voted against the 
amendment just rejected, but he thought there 
was a fair understanding in the Committee on 
Rules, that their report should not be made until 
after that of the Committee on Credendals. He 
moved to lay on the table the pending modon in- 
strucdng the latter committee to report, with a 
view to adjourning. This was agreed to, and on 
motion of Mr. Metcalf, of Illinois, the convention 
adjourned undl the next day — June 4th — at ten 
o'clock, A. M. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 39Q 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

WAR TO THE KNIFE, AND KNIFE TO THE HILT, 

T was readily seen by this time that the fight 
was to be a long-continued one, Inaugurated 
and conducted on the basis of war to the knife, 
and knife to the hilt. The country was aroused to 
a deep and untiring attention to every detail of the 
Chicago proceedings, and the newspapers were 
devoured by their thousands of readers with an 
avidity that spoke well for the political fortunes of 
our country. For no people can come to great 
disaster who show an intelligent, jealous interest 
in the proceedings of those who govern them. 

To return to the convention. The Committee 
on Credentials had a hard time of It. At midnight 
on Thursday it had been in continuous session 
for six hours. It had setded the Illinois district 
contestants at the expense of eighteen votes for 
Grant (this was a question of whether delegates 
elected by a gag-law convention or by the districts 
should be seated), had agreed to the admission of 
a divided deleoration from Louisiana, and had 

o 

reached the Pennsylvania cases (the question here 
was somewhat similar to that of Illinois — a packed 
convention instrucdng delegates the opposite way 



^OO ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

from the will of the people, and the people elect- 
ing those who fairly represented them). The con- 
testants were finally admitted. Other cases occu- 
pied the committee all night, the session coming 
to a close in the gray dawn of Friday morning. 

The convention assembled a little later, and by 
forty-five minutes after ten was ready for the busi- 
ness of the third day. Senator Conkling began 
the trouble by offering the following: 

Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that every mem- 
ber of it is bound in honor to support its nominee, whoever 
that nominee might be, and that no man shall hold his seat 
here who is not ready so to agree. 

This furnished the key-note for a debate that not 
only illustrated fairly the direction in which the 
leaders were driving, but declared in no tones of 
doubt, some principles of political wisdom, that are 
admirable reading in these days of political fer- 
ment. The Associated Press report of the debate 
was as follows : 

Mr. Hale, mounting his chair, said he supposed 
that a Republican convention did not need to be 
instructed that its first duty after naming its candi- 
date was to proceed to elect him over the Demo- 
cratic candidate. [Applause.] They all had their 
preferences, but when the deliverance was had 
from all the labor of the convention he had no 
doubt that they should all be found hand in hand, 
shoulder to shoulder, marching on to the election 
of their candidate. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



401 



Mr. Brandagee called for a vote by a call of 
States to emphasize its purpose and to ascertain 
who are for it, who are against it and who will try 
to escape it. [Applause.] 

The chair put the question first viva voce, and' 
there were apparently half a dozen nays. Mr. 
Conkling asked for a call of the States, saying it 
was desirable to know who it was in a Republican 
convention voted no on such a resolution. [Ap- 
plause.] The chair put the question to the con- 
vention as to whether there should be a call of 
States, and it was ordered by an overwhelming 
vote. 

The clerk then proceeded to call the roll. 
Maine voted unanimously yea. [Applause.] 
New York voted 70 yeas. Pennsylvania voted 
58 yeas. Only one delegate being present from 
South Carolina, he cast his single vote yea. West 
Virginia cast 5 yeas and 3 nays. [Hisses.] Two 
deleeates were absent. The total vote was : Yeas, 
716; nays, 3. So the resolution was adopted. 

Mr. Conkllno- said he wanted to offer another 
resolution, which he would reduce to writing in a 
moment, as follow 






Resolved, That the delegates who have voted that they 
will not abide the action of the convention do not deserve to 
have seats, and have forfeited their votes in the convention. 
[Subdued applause and some hisses.] 

Mr. Campbell, of West Virginia, who had cast 



402 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the vote of that State, defended his position. He 
had suffered contumely and violence for his Re- 
publican principles, and If he was now to be denied 
the free expression of his opinion in a Republican 
convention, he was willing to withdraw from that 
convention. He had imbibed his Republican prin- 
ciples from the great New York statesman, William 
H. Seward. He had been a newspaper editor 
since the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, and 
had always consistently supported the national 
Republican nominee. But he felt that there was 
a principle in this question. He would never go 
to any convention and agree beforehand that what- 
ever might be done by It should have his indorse- 
ment. He always intended to guard his own 
sovereignty. [Applause.] He never intended 
that any body of men should take that sovereignty 
from him. As he had not been afraid to stand up 
for Republican principles in West Virginia, he 
was not afraid to go home and face his con- 
stituents. 

Mr. Hale, of West Virginia, who voted aye, de- 
fended the riofht of his colleas^ue to vote as he saw 
fit, [applause], to utter his ovvm sentiments as an 
individual delegate. 

Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut, said the ques- 
tion was not one of free speech. No man here 
will seek to hinder any delegate's free speech. It 
was only a question as to what any man would do 
for tlie support of Republican principles. He con- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^q-7 

tinued at considerable length until greeted with 

hisses. 

Mr. McCormick, of West Virginia, avowed him- 
self one of the three dissenters, not because he 
did not expect to support the nominee of this con- 
vention, for he did intend to do that, no matter 
who he should be. He was as good a Republican 
as the gentleman from New York, and whereas the 
latter made only one speech for the nominee of 
the last National Republican Convention, he 
(Mr. McCormick) made one hundred. [Great 
applause and cheers.] He opposed the resolution 
only because it declares that men are not fit to sit 
in the convention if they differ from other mem- 
bers of it. 

Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, who w^as received with a 
most flattering ovation, expressed his fear that the 
convention was about" to commit a grave error. 
He would state the case. Every delegate save 
three had voted for a resolution, and the three 
who had voted against it had risen in their places 
and stated they expected and intended to support 
the nominee of the convention. But it was not, in 
their judgment, a wise thing at this time to pass 
the resolution which all the rest of the delegates 
had voted for. Were they to be disfranchised 
because they thought so ? [Cries of " No ! No!"] 
That was the question. Was every delegate to 
have his Republicanism inquired into before he 
was allowed to vote ? Delegates were responsi- 



AQ^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER &F 

ble for their votes, not to the convention, but to 
their constituents. [Cheers.] He himself would 
never, In any convention, vote against his judg- 
ment. He regretted that the gentlemen from 
West Virginia had thought it best to break the 
harmony of the convention by their dissent. He 
did not know those gentlemen, nor their affilia- 
tions, nor their relations to the candidates. If this 
convention expelled these men, then the conven- 
tion would have to purge Itself at the end of every 
vote and inquire how many delegates who had 
voted "no" should go out. [Cheers.] He trusted 
that the gentleman from New York would with- 
draw his resolution and let the convention proceed 
with Its business. [Loud cheering.] 

When this had subsided, Mr. Pixley, of Califor- 
nia, moved to lay the resolution on the table. 
[Applause.] 

Mr. Conkling demanded the call of the roll. 
[Hisses long and furious.] 

A call of the roll was ordered. Mr. Conklinpr 

o 

inquired of the chair v/hether the three gentlemen 
Tom West Virginia did say that they w^ould vote 
or the nominee of the convention. The chair 
said It was not his province to answer the ques- 
tion. Mr. Conkling said he would not press his 
resolution If his question was answered In the af- 
firmative, and finally he withdrew the resolution, 
as he said there seemed to be some doubt. [Ap- 
plause and hisses.] 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^qc 

General Sewell, of New Jersey, moved that the 
Committee on Rules be ordered to report, with the 
understanding that no action should be taken 
upon the report until after the report of the Com- 
mittee on Credentials had been presented. During 
the reading of this report, Senator Bruce, of 
Mississippi, temporarily occupied the chair, and 
was received with applause on taking it. The 
rules were then read by the secretary ; the one 
forbidding the employment of any unit rule was 
received with great applause. This was Rule 8, 
and provided as follows : " In the record of a vote 
by States, the vote of each State, Territory and 
District of Columbia shall be announced by the 
chairman, and in announcing the vote of any State, 
Territory and District of Columbia, the chairman 
shall announce the number of votes cast for any 
candidate, or for or against any proposition, but if 
exception is taken by any delegate to the correct- 
ness of such announcement by the chairman of a 
delegation, the president of the convention shall 
direct the roll of such delegation to be called and 
the result shall be recorded in accordance with the 
vote individually given." 

The five-minute rule was enforced by Rule 9. 

Mr. Sharpe, of New York, presented a minority 
report recommending the adoption for Rule 8 ol 
Rule 6 of the convention of 1876, as follows: 

" In the record of votes by States the vote of 
each State, Territory and the District of Columbia 



4o6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER oy 



shall be announced by the chairman, and in case 
the vote of any State, Territory or the District of 
Columbia shall be divided, the chairman shall an- 
nounce the number of votes cast for any candidate, 
or for or against any proposition." 

After this was burled In the adoption of the 
majority report, the convention did nothing In par- 
ticular while waiting the long-delayed report of 
the Committee on Credentials. At last It was 
presented by Mr. Conger, of Michigan. 

In Louisiana the committee recommended the 
admission of the Warmouth delegation, excluding 
the Beattle delegation, because the Beattle bolt 
was without adequate cause. In Alabama they 
recommended the admission of Mr. Rapier, 
believing that the State Convention had no 
right to override or Ignore his selection by his 
district because of his failure to approve the 
condition that he should obey the Instructions that 
the State delegation should vote as a unit foi 
Grant. In the case of Smith and Warner, In Ala> 
bama, the facts were substantially the same as In 
the case of Rapier. They were duly chosen by 
their respective districts, and the State Convention 
undertook to revoke their appointment because 
they failed to accept the unit rule. The committee 
recommended their admission. In Illinois the 
committee recommended the admission of the 
contestants to the seats of the sittincr members- 
from the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^qj 

Tenth, Thirteenth and Seventeenth Congressional 
Districts. The committee also reported against 
the contestant in the Second Illinois District, and 
did not sustain the objections of the delegates-at- 
large in the same State. They further reported 
in favor of the sitting members from the Ninth 
and Nineteenth Districts of Pennsylvania and 
Third District of West Virginia. They also re- 
ported in favor of the contestants from the Second 
and Third Districts of Kansas, and that the ten 
deleeates should be allowed to retain their seats, 
but only six votes be cast. They recommended 
that the delegates from Utah should keep their 
seats. The committee suggested that the final 
decision of many of these contests depended upon 
the adoption by the convention of the principle of 
Congressional District representation. This the 
committee believed to be sound. The report cited 
J. D. Cameron's support of the right of individual 
district representations at the convention of 1876, 
under precisely similar circumstances and a similar 
call for a National Convention. The report did 
not believe that the right of Congressional District 
representation should be invaded for the first time 
by the action of a National Convention. If the 
State Convention could, by a bare majority, over- 
ride the will of the people, fairly expressed in the 
selection of district delegates, it might as well ap- 
point at once all the delegates. Nominations 

made through such misreprese.itations were not 
24 



4oS 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



likely to be ratified by the people. It was the 
duty of the convention to disapprove emphatically 
all attempts to override the high moral customs of 
the party. 

The report was received with applause, and Mr. 
Clayton, of Arkansas, presented the report of the 
minority, which differed upon the vital question of 
district representation. The recommendation oi 
the majority, If adopted, would, the minority con- 
sidered, work as an ex post facto rule, reversing 
the long-established usage of the party in many 
States. They urged that there was a vacancy in 
the district claimed by Rapier, and that the sitting 
members were entitled to the seats which the 
majority report awarded to Smith and Warner. 
The minority said that as Rapier refused to accept 
the pledge exacted by the State Convention, he 
was there without credentials ; also, that he was 
not elected by his district, but only nominated, and 
that, except through the action of the State con- 
vention ratifying his nomination, he had no au- 
thority whatever. It did not appear that there 
had been any district conventions In Alabama at 
which the Alabama contestants had been chosen. 
Their authority there could rest only on action in 
the State Convention. If the principle of district 
representation was a sound one, then niore than 
half of the delegates sitting in the convention 
were there without right, and if the rule was ^. 
rigidly applied the body would find itself without 



JAMES A. GARI^IELD. ^^ 

a quorum. In the ':ase of Illinois, the minority 
report made an elaborate statement of facts, and 
denied a charge made against the State Conven- 
tion that it entered into a gigantic conspiracy to 
defraud the electors. The State Convention de- 
clared its preference for Grant, and instructed the 
delegates to vote as a unit for him. Was the con- 
vention to say that the majority of the convention 
of the State of Illinois possessed no such power ? 
Would the convention undertake to say, and 
would the country justify it in saying, that the ma- 
jority of the people in so great a State should not 
be permitted to express their preferences on ques- 
tions of this character, and that if they had clear 
and distinct preferences they should be utterly 
helpless in the selection of the methods by which 
that preference was to be made effectual? It was 
absurd upon the face of it, to say that Illinois, or 
any other State, had a right to instruct its dele- 
gates to vote for a particular candidate, and yet 
had not the power to make such instructions ef- 
fectual and binding. The report took the ground 
that local squabbles, as in the case of Cook Coun- 
ty, should be left to the State, and not transferred 
to the National Convention. The report ended 
with a recommendation that the sitting delegates 
should be allowed to keep their seats. 

Mr. Conger handed in the corrected list of 
delegates as reported by his committee, and 
moved the convention proceed to consider the 



.JO ^^-^^' '-^^"^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Louisiana cases. This was the signal for a run- 
nine fidit in debate, and the delegates soon got 

at It. 

Mr. Cessna, of Pennsylvania, moved to adopt 
all the report on which the committee had agreed, 
and then proceed to'the separate consideradon of 
the disputed issues Involving the contests In Ala- 
bama, Illinois, West Virginia and Utah. 

Mr. Conkling called for the consideration of the 
questions which fell within the list of undisputed 

cases. 

Mr. Coneer said this list embraced the cases of 
Louisiana, the Second District of Illinois, the Illi- 
nois delegates-at-large, the Second and Fourth 
Districts of Kansas, and the Ninth and Nineteenth 
Districts of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Logan inquired how It happened that there 
was any report as to the four delegates-at-large > 
from the State of Illinois. It was the first time 
that he had heard of the right to their seats being 
questioned. 

Mr. Conger replied that petitions against the 
right of the four delegates-at-large had been pre- 
sented to the convention and referred to the com- 
mittee, and hence it was necessary for the com- 
mittee to notice the subject in Its report. Mr. 
Logan indignantly protested against his right to a 
seat being called Into question, and intimated that 
he perfectly well understood the object of It. He 
submitted that he was en tided to fair play, and he 



\ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^j 1 

complained of the treatment to which he and the 
man who had led the armies of the nation to vic- 
tory had been treated. [Cheers for Grant] Had 
the Republicans of Illinois ever failed to do their 
duty in the hour of peril, when the dark cloud 
lowered over the peace and prosperity of the 
country? Had they not given their muscle and 
nerve and soldierly qualities for the preservation 
of the Republic ? [Applause.] 

A Kansas delegate objected to the inclusion of 
Kansas in the list of undisputed questions. 

Mr. Cessna modified his motion so as to give 
separate action on the Kansas case. 

Mr. Sharpe, of New York, moved to amend the 
pending motion so as to strike from the majority 
report so much of it as related to the Illinois dele- 
gates-at-large. [Applause.] 

Mr. Conger replied to Mr. Logan, expressing 
profound regret that a gentleman whom he so 
much loved and honored should have imagined 
that the Committee on Credentials intended the 
slightest reflection upon him. He reminded him 
that the credentials of all delegates had been sub- 
mitted to the committee — those of the high and 
lifted up as well as those of the humblest delegate 
from the wilds of the South. [Laughter and ap- 
plause.] It would have been unworthy of the 
splendid Committee on Credentials not to have told 
the convention in distinct words that the lofty anci 
distinofuished citizen of the State of Illinois was 



412 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER O^ 



entitled to a seat in the convention. He made no 
apology to that gentleman, or to the State of Illi- 
nois, or to this great body of people, for the moral 
courage of the committee which enabled it to say 
to the world that the gentleman (Mr. Logan) was 
entitled to his seat. 

Mr. Cessna's amendment was then adopted 
without dissent. The question was then stated on 
Mr. Sharpe's motion to amend, and Mr. Haywood, 
of California, pointed out that If Mr. Sharpe's mo- 
tion should prevail, the seats of the Illinois dele- 
gates would be contested, while the committee 
proposed to put their title beyond question or dis- 
pute in history. 

After some personal sparring between Mr. Hay- 
wood and Mr. Logan In regard to the latter's 
action at Springfield, Mr. Sharpe's motion, modi- 
fied so as to strike from the majority report as 
much of It as Implied that there was any contest 
regarding the Illinois delegation at large, was 
adopted. So much of the committee's report as 
was undisputed, was then adopted, and on motion 
of Mr. Bruce, of Mississippi, the convention ad- 
journed until seven P. M. 

The convention re-assembled at half-past seven, 
and continued In session for several hours, during 
which the debates were confined exclusively to the 
question of contested cases, as reported by the 
Committee on Credentials, and the interruptions 
in the shape of applause were remarkable In their 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



413 



Singular spontaneity and prolongation when James 
G. Blai. e and U. S. Grant were mentioned by the 
speakers. The brilliancy of the scene during this 
session was remarkable, the unusual presence of 
ladies in bright colors, the thousands of gas-jets, 
the flowers, flags, banners and portraits, sur- 
rounded by the National bunting, framed in a 
picture never to be forgotten by those who wit- 
nessed it. 

In the contested cases, that of Alabama was first 
taken up, and debate was limited to twenty min- 
utes on each side. The case of Mr. Rapier was 
shown to be whether the State Convention had a 
righl to deprive him of his vote merely because he 
refused to vote for General Grant. The same 
point was the issue in all the Alabama cases. The 
sparring continued to the time of limit of the de- 
bate, and the question having been stated to be 
the m.otion to substitute the minority report for 
the majority's, Mr. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, 
moved the followinof : 

Resolved, That all the cases of contested seats be decided 
by adopting the usage of each State, and that in every State 
where the uniform usage has been to elect delegates to the 
National Republican Convention by the State Convention, 
that usage shall be deemed binding, and the same shall be 
true in respect of delegates sent by District Conventions 
where that has been the usage. 

Mr. Conger rose to a point of order, that the 
resolution was not germaine to the pending ques- 



AjA^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OR 

tlon, and the chair sustained the point. The ques- 
tion was put and decided viva voce overvhelm- 
ingly in the negative. A division v/as demanded, 
and the result was, yeas 306, nays 449. The 
announcement which settled the question of a State 
Convention's power to compel a delegate to vote 
as it directs, was received with tumxultuous ap- 
plause. The majority report was then adopted. 

The case of Illinois was then taken up, and Mr. 
Quarles, of Wisconsin, moved that the debate be 
limited to one hour, to be equally divided between 
both sides. This brought the irrepressible Hot- 
spur of Illinois, John A. Logan, to his feet, who 
urged greater allowances of time, and made 
another reference to " the old soldier," that drew 
applause. " If," he said, " you can beat the old 
soldier, all right ; you beat the man who has been 
recognized by every civilized nation of the world. 
But do not by tactics drive Illinois down to prevent 
the old soldier from havin^f his share of the States." 
Mr. Lojyan said he was informed that the Califor- 
nia delegates were not awarded their credentials 
imtil they had taken the pledge to support the 
candidate for v/hom the State Convention In- 
structed them to vote. He asked the California 
delegation to say what the fact was. 

In a moment there was silence, followed by de- 
risive laughter, under the supposition that the 
Californians could not deny the accusation. 

Finally, Mr. Haymond, of California, got up on 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^.jt 

his chair and said the question could not be an- 
swered in one word, but he w^ould be most happy 
to respond if he could be allowed a little time in 
which to do so. " California selected her deleo^ates 
to this convention by the vote of each district 
represented here ; their appointment was con- 
firmed by the State Convention, and that in order 
that there should be no mistake about it, the State 
Convention had then, with perfect unanimity, in- 
structed the delegates to vote first, last and all the 
time, for the distin-sruished senator from Maine." 

These last words proved the spark that had all 
along been wanted to fire the train of dry Blaine 
powder within Exposition Hall. His name acted 
like an electric flash, and there followed Mr. Hay- 
mond's allusion to the Maine senator such a scene 
of excitement as has rarely been witnessed in a 
political convention within the United States. 
Three-fourths of the immense throng in the gal- 
leries and on the floor outside of the space allotted 
to delegates, and fully one-half of the delegates 
themselves, sprang to their feet, cheering, shout- 
ing, waving hats, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, for the 
space of several minutes, before any attempt at 
restoring order could make the least impression 
on the excited mass. 

Subsequently the time allotted to the Illinois 
case was limited to an hour on each side, and Mr. 
Conger opened the debate in favor of the majority 
report, which he said asserted, confirm'=td and es- 



4i6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



tablished in that convention the rule that had pre- 
vailed in Illinois from the birth of the Republican 
party down to the present time, the rule of dis- 
trict representation. Mr. Raum replied for the 
sitting delegates, but had no adequate arguments 
igainst Mr. Conger's facts. Eliott Anthony spoke 
for the opposition, and was succeeded by Mr. Storrs, 
of Illinois, who made a speech, the principal effect 
of which was to cause wild bursts of applause foi 
Blaine and Grant. The sentence, *' Nominate 
James G. Blaine if you will," was the signal for 
another grand outburst of applause, which was 
renewed and intensified when he finished the sen- 
tence thus: ''And then those who now shout in 
the galleries shall by and by be reposing under 
the influence of the summer sun ; but the followers 
of the grand old silent soldier will still be found 
udde awake and watching by their camp-fires and 
carrying the banners of the sluggards." 

The scene which followed and continued for 
several minutes was most exciting, the uproar 
dying away, then breaking out again many times, 
a perfect epidemic of cheers. What came next 
was thus described by a correspondent: 

"Mn Conkling was conspicuous in leading the 
chorus, first by waving his handkerchief and later 
by standing on his chair and waving the illumina- 
ted little banner placed to designate the seats of 
the New York delegation. Finally some one 
started the campaign songs: 'We'll Rally 'Round 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



417 



the Flag, Boys, Shouting the Battle-cry of Free- 
dom,' and 'Marching through Georgia.' 

"At this time nearly every person within the hall 
Avas on his feet, each cheering for his own favorite. 
Flags, shawls, parasols, hats and all other movable 
things within reach were swung furiously to and 
fro. Bob Ingersoll, seizing a lady's shawl, waved 
It frantically from the platform. In the centre of 
the stage, just back of the chair, a fine-looking 
lady, with a flag in one hand and parasol in the 
other, swung them to and fro and repeated time 
and again, 'Hurrah for Blaine!' She appeared 
to be in company with Governor Jewell, of Con- 
necticut. Finally, she obtained two flags, and 
with one In each hand continued her enthusiastic 
efforts as long as the uproar lasted. It may 
safely be said that no public assemblage ever be- 
fore witnessed such a scene. People seemed ac- 
tually to have lost their senses In the giddy whirl." 

For half an hour this continued before the chair 
made any effort to control the members. The 
Illinois cases were then disposed of in favor of the 
majority, and, worn out with excitement, the con- 
vention shortly after adjourned to Saturday 
morning. 



4iS 



LJFJi AN^ FUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE THUNDERS OF ORATORY. 

THE weather, which till now had been aus- 
picious, changed its mood with the dawn 
of the fourth day of the great batde, and 
those who left their hotels and homes for Exposi- 
tion Hall had to face inclemency. Inside the 
Hall, however, there was but litde change. A 
disdnguished editor, writing home to his paper, 
thus described the opening on June 5th: 

" Cameron looked freshest of all the chief 
gladiators. He wasted none of his vitality in ora- 
tory, and his energies had not been lavishly 
taxed, like those of Logan, Conger and others. 
He flitted about on the platform before the con- 
vention opened, visibly anxious, but calm and im- 
perturbable as ever. When the call to arms rang 
out from the chair, he hastened down to his com- 
mand, where the Grant leaders were admirably 
posted. Cameron, with his Pennsylvania phalanx, 
shattered, but yet defiant, was In the centre of the 
western block of the convention ; Conkling, with 
his better-preserved New York corps, in the cen- 
tre of the field, with Boutwell and his fev/ Massa- 
chusetts followers, and with Creswell and his cun- 
ningly broken Blaine column of Maryland, and 



yAMES A, GARFIELD, ^X0 

his dozen of Ohio Grant men, forming a semi-cir- 
cle in the rear of the undisputed third-term chief 
on the eastern block. Within easy call of Ala- 
bama and Arkansas was the clouded face and burly 
form of Locran. A brood of stranc^ers sat with 
him in his own delegation, whom he had rejected 
at Springfield ; but he was their oracle neverthe- 
less, although he made discord in the Grant 
melody that so uniformly came from Illinois when 
the roll-call was ordered. Logan was early at his 
place ; his dark face was darker than ever, and 
the nervous twitching of the right arm that he 
swings so violently in debate told that he was im- 
patient for the final charge. His hand was 
jammed into his wealth of Indian locks every few 
moments and then would drop from force of habit 
to adjust the right lapel of his coat. Creswell 
came in as serene as if a Grant victory were 
gained ; but Boutwell betrayed the harassing con- 
flict going on between his hopes and fears. 
■He has outgrown his amiability with departing 
powers, and he is not vested with a command in 
critical emergencies. Taft sat complacently be- 
tween the Sherman and Garfield expectants, pa- 
tiently waiting for the hour when he could take a 
third or more of his delegation to his old com- 
mander. 

" Conkling awaited, as is his custom, until the 
ten thousand people had come and got clearly 
«eatei and then he strode down the centre aisJc 



4^o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OE 



in his imperial manner. He knew that his ap- 
pearance would be the signal for a thundering 
salute to himself and the first round of party ap- 
plause for Grant, and he was not mistaken. He 
played It nobly and smiled In his sweetest manner 
to his worshipers. The Blaine leaders were fid- 
gety and flying hither and thither until they had to 
get In line for the batde. Hale and Frye looked 
worn w^Ith anxiety and seemed to be distrustful of 
themselves. They knew that they could crowd 
Blaine up close to and probably abreast with 
Grant on the first ballot, but they trembled with 
apprehension lest the Sherman wing should fall 
them in their extremity. They entered the con- 
test hopeful on Sherman, preferring Blaine to 
Grant, but they knew that they had many dan- 
gerous rocks and shoals to encounter In eettlne 
their craft to shore. It is the day of fate for 
Blaine. His generals entered the fight this morn- 
ing conscious that if they lost, the execrations of 
Blaine's millions of followers would fall upon 
them. They had been reproached for two days 
for missing the golden opportunity to nominate 
Blaine on Thursday, when the Grant lines had 
been broken and when a vigorous pursuit would 
have scattered them beyond the hope of concen- 
trating again under the flag of the old soldier. 
Just in front of Conkling sits the shrewdest and 
most level-headed of all the Blaine leaders. Al- 
though seldom seen at the front, General Sewell, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



421 



of New Jersey, would have had Blaine nominated 
on Thursday evening had he been In command ; 
but Chandler, Frye and Hale spoke, and Chand- 
ler spoke away two hours of valuable time. 

"The residuary legatees in expectancy sat at 
long range from each other. The little Verm.ont 
deleofatlon was nestled down in the south-west cor- 
ner of the hall; and they had the Yankee shrewd- 
ness that keeps its own counsels and throws its 
tubs most judiciously to the jostling whales. They 
made no speeches, played no tricks for the gal- 
leries, but patiently waited and hoped for the line 
to be thrown to them by the snarling disputants 
for its possession. They did not even boast of a 
leader, although they have some of the Green 
Mountain State's best men in their ranks. 

■'The other camp of expectants presented several 
pretenders, each hoping to be preferred to the 
others. Governor Foster stepped in quietly, and 
sat down as serenely as if it was to be a day of 
pleasure. He did not attempt to rival Garfield In 
drawing the applause of the upper tiers, but he 
had a quiet impression creeping over him that if 
Sherman should be defeated, the governor of Sher- 
man's State would be made the Vice-President — 
to pull the ticket through the Buckeyes in October. 
Dennlson and Taft came In at the rear of the 
herd, like the veteran bulls that have been dis- 
patched from commanding the younger and more 
I aggressive buffaloes. Bateman, the Sherman 



A 22 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

Strategists, dropped In early, and hastily visited 
every outpost before the bugle sounded the at- 
tack; and Butterfield, l:andsome as a picture and 
graceful and fluent on the floor, chose liIs position 
where he could catch the eye of the chair. This 
delecration was the centre of Interest In the morn- 
In^, for all felt tliat it held the fate of batde In its 
keeping. The correspondents came straggling in, 
stiff and jaded, but they speedily forgot their 
weariness as the brilliant sallies, which the rising 
newspaper men can display, swiftly crossed their 
crowded tables. The stronr^-minded women flled 
In In good time and were cheered from the galle- 
ries, and the distinguished guests crowded their 
liberal space, and waited anxiously for the flrst 
gun of the decisive struggle. 

'' President Hoar did not call the convention to 
order until a quarter before twelve. The Kansas 
contest was the flrst business, and it was an em- 
b.irrassinof issue to both sides. The Blaine-Sher- 
man men were compelled to vote out four of their 
men and to give their seats to Grant men, to 
justify their action in the Illinois case; and the 
Grant men had to vote ap-alnst the admission of 
their own friends to maintain their consistency. 
The Blaine-Sherman men preserved their inten- 
tion and voted out their own men, but some of 
the fiercest Grant men stood obstinately to their 
guns, and voted against the addition of four to 
tiieir number. Logan rose and, in dramatic style, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. , ^ ^ 

4-0 

cast the votes of his Illinois followers aeainst his 
. friends. The overwhelming vote of 476 to 184 
showed, however, that separate district represen- 
tation is henceforth to be the accepted law of the 
party. The next question brought about a sud- 
den change of partners in the national waltz. 
Two Sherman men contested the seats of the 
Blaine delegates from West Virginia, and the 
Sherman men were thrown into an alliance with 
Grant as if by magic. The cut came from 
Massachusetts, and the Blaine leaders saw that 
an unexpected and serious danger threatened 
them. They threw out their flanks to stay the 
union between the Sherman and Grant forces, 
but it was Grouchy after Blucher over again. 
The Sherman men piled in with the Grant army, 
and Blaine was compelled for the first time to 
face the field alone — as Grant had to meet it in 
several previous conflicts. An active rally was 
made along the Blaine lines, but the vote of 
every divided delegation proved that many who 
were bitterly against Grant were as bitterly 
against Blaine, and the ballot footed up 417 for 
the new Grant-Sherman combination, and 3 1 2 
against it." 

After this the Utah contesting delegates were 
seated by a vote of 426 to 312, and the contests 
were finished. 

Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, who on rising was re- 
ceived with great applause, inquired oi Mr. Sharpe, 
25 



iV 



42 /t ZZ/'i? AXD PUBLIC CAREER OF 

of New York, who made the minority report from 
the Committee on Rules and Order of Business, 
how much time he desired for the discussion oi 
the report. 

Mr. Sharpe could not tell exactly, and the mi- 
nority and majority reports were then read. 

Mr. Garfield moved the adoption of the ma- 
jority report. 

The ensuing debate was thus reported by die 
Associated Press: 

Mr. Sharpe criticized the proposed amend- 
ment to the eighth rule, and moved to strike it 
out, that amendment being "but if exception is 
taken by any delegate to the correctness of such 
an announcement by the chairman of his delega- 
tion, the president of the convention shall direct 
the roll of members of such delegation to be called 
and the result recorded in accordance with the 
votes individually given." He reminded the chair- 
man of the Committee on Rules that the con- 
vention had been in session three and a half days, 
and had had no trouble from the absence of that 
rule, which he regarded as entirely unnecessary. 
He was not here to seek further delay. The battle 
was formed; each side was ready, and the people 
were waiting for the verdict. [Applause.] They 
all felt that whatever was to be obtained on the 
skirmish line had been obtained, and that they 
were standing in the ranks of battle opposite each 
other, and ready to give the people news of the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, . 2 cC 

contest. He therefore offered the following leso- 
lution: 

Resolved, That this convention will proceed immediately 
to ballot for a candidate for President of the United States, 
and that one speech of fifteen minutes shall be allowed for the 
presentation of each candidate, and one speech of ten minutes 
to second each nomination, and that after such nominations 
are made a ballot shall be taken by a call of the roll of the 
States. 



Mr. Garfield raised the point of order that 
under the order of the convention the report of 
the Committee on Rules was before the body and 
Mr. Sharpe's motion, being for proceeding to en- 
tirely different business, was not in order. 

The chair ruled Mr. Sharpe's motion in order. 

A vote was ordered by call of States. 

Mr. Sharpe modified his resolution so as to 
provide that after the nominating speeches shall 
have been made the ballots for Presidential nomi- 
nees shall be taken by call of the roll of the States. 

Mr. Garfield pointed out that if Mr. Sharpe's 
motion should be adopted the convention would be 
without rules for Its government and especially 
without any rule prescribing whether or not the 
unit rule shall prevail in the balloting or w^iether 
the right of district representation shall prevail. 
I le reminded the convention that it had witnessed 
a scene, which would be photographed in history, 
of four delegates from Kentucky rising on their 



426 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



seats and protesting against their votes being 
counted in a way in which they had not cast them. 
Let the rule be settled and he w^ould be bound by 
it. Let it be the unit rule or let it be the individ- 
ual rule and he would feel bound by it, the latter 
particularly, because he considered it eternally 
right. [Applause.] 

Mr. Frye (Me.) asked Mr. Garfield whether, with- 
out the adoption of any of the rules as reported, 
and especially that one which made the rules of 
the House of Representatives the rules of the 
convention, there would be any such thing as a 
previous question. 

Mr. Garfield replied that there would not be. 

Mr. Frye. — If there be no previous question, 
and if, after the first ballot is taken, as provided 
in the resolution offered by the gentleman from 
New York (Sharpe), another gentleman makes 
another nomination, is there any rule by which 
debate from that time forward can possibly be 
stopped ? 

Mr. Garfield. — I take it that ther.^ is not. 

Mr. Conkling. — The gentleman from Ohio yields 
a moment to let me reply to the closing words of 
the gentleman from Maine (Frye). They seem 
to have been pointedly aimed at me. I wish to 
say to that gentleman that I do not clearly see the 
"point" of his alarmed and anxious opposition. He 
dreads the cross of bayonets, shrinks and wants 
time. [Cheers and hisses.] 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. .^j 

Mr. Garfield. — I have only made the point that 
we ought to have rules, and have them now to 
conduct and control the future business of the 
convention. 

Mr. Sharpe replied, urging that the dangers of 
trouble pointed out by Mr. Garfield, In the absence 
of any adopted rules, were imaginary, and inti- 
mating distinctly that there would be no attempt 
to prevent each delegate from expressing his in- 
dividual sentiments throuorh the chairman of his 
deleo-atlon. 

o 

The chair stated the question to be upon the 
substitution of Mr. Sharpe's resolution for the re- 
port of the Committee on Rules. 

Upon a viva voce vote the negatives had it. A 
call of States was demanded, and being taken, re- 
sulted: Yeas, 276; nays, 479. New York voted 
48 yeas, 22 nays. The result was hailed with 
great applause. 

Mr. Garfield said the convention had wasted on 
this vote time enough to have adopted the rules 
and gone to work. He asked that the question 
now be taken without further debate. 

Mr. Sharpe moved to substitute the minority re- 
port, which was rejected. 

Mr. Boutwell moved to amend the majority re- 
port by adding the following: ''And said commit- 
tee (the National Republican Committee) shall, 
within twelve months, prescribe a method or 
methods lor the election of delegates to the Na- 



428 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



tlonal Convention to be held In 1884, ^^^ announce 
the same to the country and issue a call for that 
convention in conformity therewith." 

Mr. Butterworth (Ohio) moved an amendment 
by adding the following: "Provided, that nothing 
in such rules or method shall be so construed as 
to prevent the several Congressional districts in 
the United States fromx selectlnof their own dele- 
gates to the National Convention. [Applause.] 

Mr. Boutwell accepted Mr. Butterw^orth's amend- 
ment. 

Mr. Garfield hoped the amendment would be 
adopted, and It was so adopted by the convention, 
and then the rules were adopted as a whole. 

On motion of Mr. Garfield, the Committee on 
Resolutions were ordered to report. 

The committee having been ordered to report, 
did so, and the platform was the first thing read, a 
document presenting the issues of the hour. Its 
full text is as follows : 

The Republican party in National Convention 
assembled, at the end of twenty years since the 
Federal Government was first committed to its 
charge, submits to the people of the United States 
this brief report of its administration. It sup- 
pressed rebellion which had armed nearly a mil- 
lion of men to subvert the national authority. It 
reconstructed the union of the States with free- 
dom instead of slavery as its corner-stone. It 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. aoq 

transformed four million human beings from the 
likeness of thino^s to the rank of citizens. It re- 
lieved Conoress from the infamous work of hunt- 
ino- fuofitive slaves and charofed it to see that 
slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of 
our currency from thirty-eight per cent, to the par 
of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis pay- 
ment in coin for all the national oblio^ations, and 
has given us a currency absolutely good and equal 
in every part of our extended country. It has 
lifted the care of the nation from the point where 
six per cent, bonds sold at eighty-six to that where 
four per cent, bonds are eagerly sought at a pre- 
mium under its administration; railways have in- 
creased from thirty-one thousand miles In i860 to 
more than eighty-two thousand miles in 1879; our 
foreign trade has increased from seven hundred 
millions to one billion one hundred and fifty mil- 
lions of dollars in the same time, and our exports, 
which were twenty millions of dollars less than 
our imports in i860, were two hundred and sixty- 
four millions of dollars more than our imports In 
1879. Without resorting to loans it has, since the 
war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of 
government, besides the accruing interest on the 
public debt, and dispersed annually more than 
thirty millions of dollars for soldiers' pensions. 
It has paid eight hundred and eighty-eight millions 
of dollars of the public debt, and, by refunding the 
balanee at lower rates, has reduced the annual 



430 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



interest charges from nearly one hundred and 
fifty-one millions to less than eighty-nine millions 
of dollars. All the industries of the country have 
revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased, 
and throughout the entire country there is evi- 
dence of a coming prosperity greater than we have 
ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican 
party asks for the continued confidence and sup- 
port of the people, and this convention submits 
for their approval the following statements of the 
principle and purposes which will continue to guide 
aynd inspire its efforts : 

1st. We affirm that the work of the last twenty- 
one years has been such as to commend itself to 
the favor of the nation, and that the fruits of the 
costly victory which we have achieved through 
immense difficulties should be preserved ; after 
that the peace regained should be cherished ; that 
the dissevered Union, now happily restored, 
should be perpetuated, and that the liberty secured 
to this generation should be transmitted undimin- 
ished to future generations ; that the order estab- 
lished and the credit acquired should never be 
impaired ; that the pensions promised should be 
extinguished by the full payment of every dollar 
thereof; that the reviving industries should be 
further promoted, and that the commerce, already 
so great, should be steadily encouraged. 

2d. The Constitution of the United States is a 
supreme law and not a mere contract. Out of 



JAMES A, GARFIELD ^oj 

confederated States it made a sovereign nation. 
Some powers are denied to the nation, while 
others are denied to the States, but the boundary 
between the powers delegated, and those reserved 
is to be determined by the national and not by the 
State tribunals. 

3d. The work of popular education is left to the 
care of the several States, but it is the duty of the 
National Government to aid that work to the ex- 
tent of its Constitutional duty. The intelligence 
of the nation is but the aofsfre^ate of the intelli- 
gence of the several States, and the destiny of 
the nation must not be guided by the genius of 
any one State, but by the average genius of all. 

4th. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress 
to make any law respecting an establishment of 
religion, but it is idle to hope that the nation can 
be protected against the influence of sectarianism, 
while each State is exposed to its domination. 
We, therefore, recommend that the Constitution 
be so amended as to lay the same prohibition 
upon the Legislature of each State and to forbid 
the appropriation of public funds to the support 
of sectarian schools. 

5th. We affirm the belief, avowed in 1876, that 
the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should 
so discriminate as to favor American labor. That 
no further grant of the public domain should be 
made to any railway or other corporation ; that 
slavery having perished in the States, its twin bar- 



432 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



barlty, polyg-amy, must die in the Territories. 
That everywhere the protection accorded to citi- 
zens of American birth must be secured to citizens 
by American adoption, and that we esteem it the 
duty of Congress to develop and improve our 
water-courses and harbors, but insist that further 
subsidies to private persons or corporations must 
cease ; that the obligations of the Republic to the 
men who preserved its integrity in the hour of 
battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen 
years since their final victory; to do them per- 
petual honor is and shall forever be the grateful 
privilege and sacred duty of the American people. 

6th. Since the authority to regulate immigra- 
tion and intercourse between the United States 
and foreign nations rests with Congress, or with 
the United States and its treaty-making power, 
the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted 
emigration of Chinese as an evil of ereat maeni- 
tude, invoke the exercise of those powers to re- 
strain and limit that immigration by the enact- 
ment of such just, humane and reasonable provi- 
sions as will produce that result. 

7th. That the purity and patriotism which 
characterize the earlier career of Rutherford B. 
Hayes in peace and war and which guided the 
thoughts of our Immediate predecessors to him for 
a Presidential candidate have continued to inspire 
him In his career as Chief Executive, and that his- 
tory will accord to his administration the honors 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. .-.^ 



O 



which are due to an efficient, just and courteous 
discharge of the pubHc business, and will honor 
his interpositions between the people and the pro- 
posed partisan laws. 

8th. We charge upon the Democratic party 
the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a 
supreme and insatiable lust of office and patron- 
age ; that to obtain possession of the National 
and State Governments and the control of place 
and position they have obstructed all effort to pro- 
mote the purity and to conserve the freedom of 
suffiage, and have devised fraudulent certifications 
and returns, have labored to unseat lawfully 
elected members of Congress to secure at all 
hazards the vote of a majority of the States in the 
House of Representatives ; have endeavored to 
occupy by force and fraud the places of trust 
given to others by the people of Maine and res- 
cued by the courage In action of Maine's patriotic 
sons ; have by m.ethods vicious in principle and 
tyrannical In practice attached partisan legislation 
to bills upon whose passage the very movements 
of government depend ; have crushed the rights 
of individuals, have advocated the principle and 
sought the favor of rebellion aoainst the nation 
and have endeavored to obliterate the sacred 
memories of the war and to overcome Its Inesti- 
mable valuable results of nationality, personal 
freedom and individual equality. The equal, 
steady and complete enforcement of laws and the 



434 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of 
all privileges and communities guaranteed by the 
Constitution are the first duties of the nation. 
The dangers of a solid South can only be averted 
by a faithful performance of every prom^ise which 
the nation has made to the citizens ; the execution 
of the laws and the punishment of all those who 
violate them are the only safe methods by which 
an enduring peace can be secured and genuine 
prosperity established throughout the South. 
Whatever promises the nation makes the nation 
must perform, and the nation cannot with safety 
delegate this duty to the States. The solid South 
must be divided by the powerful agencies of the 
ballot, and all opinions must there find free ex- 
pression, and to this end the honest voters must 
be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud, 
and we affirm It to be the duty and the purpose 
of the Republican party to use every legitimate 
means to restore all the States of this Union to 
the most perfect harmony as may be practicable ; 
and we submit to the practical, sensible people of 
the United States to say whether it would not be 
dangerous to the dearest Interests of our country 
at this time to surrender the administration of the 
National Government to a part}^ which seeks to 
overthrow the existing policy under which we 
are so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and 
confusion where there Is now order, confidence 
and hope. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. . :, k 

The following resolution was appended : 

The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed 
by its last National Convention of respect for the Constitu- 
h tional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the de- 
claration of President Hayes that the reform in the civil service 
shall be thorough, radical and complete. To that end it de- 
mands the co-operation of the Legislature with the Executive 
Departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so 
legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, 
shall admit to the public service. 

The reading was frequently interrupted by 
applause and cheers, and at its conclusion, Mr. 
Barker, of Massachusetts, moved to amend by 
I adding the following: < 

The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed 
I by its last National Convention of respect for the Constitu- 
' tional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the de- 
claration of President Hayes that the reform in the civil service 
shall be thorough, radical and complete. To that end it de- 
mands the co-operation of the Legislative with the Executive 
Departments of the Government, and that Congress shall 
so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, 
shall admit to the public service. That the tenure of admin- 
istrative offices, except those through which the distincti^^ 
policy of the party in power shall be carried out, shall be per- 
manent during good behavior, and that the power of removal 
for cause, with the responsibility for the good conduct of sub- 
ordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment. 

This precipitated a debate apon the question of 
civil service, in which nothing of particular mo- 
ment was uttered. Mr. Barker's amendment 



'13 6 



LfFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



was eventually adopted, then the resolution, as 
amended, which omits the tenure of office clause, 
and otherwise leaves it as introduced, was adopted, 
and the convention, on motion of Mr. Creswell, 
took a recess until seven P. M. 

The evening session was particularly crowded, 
as nothing now remained but to get the nomina- 
tions made, and then to ballot. The spectators 
were full of the intensest enthusiasm, and the 
crowd without lived upon every echo that came 
from the convention hall. As soon as the dele- 
gates were ready, the chairman read a communi- 
cation from Mr. James P. Root, calling attention 
to the historical associations connected with the 
gavel used by the presiding officer of the conven- 
tion. Its head was made from a piece of wood 
grown at the home of Abraham Lincoln, and the ' 
handle from a cane grown on the Mount Vernon J 
estate, the home of Washington. It was pre- 
sented to the chair as a memento of the most re- 
markable convention ever held in the history of 
the Republican party. 

After this incident the battle was renewed. Mr. 
Plale moved that the roll of States be called, for 
the announcement of names of members of the 
Republican National Committee. The roll was 
called and Alabama named Paul J. Stoback ; Ar- 
kansas, W. Dorsey; California, Horace Davis; 
Colorado, John L. i<.outt ; Connecticut, Marshall 
Jewell ; Delaware, Christian Febiger ; Florida, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



437 



William W. Hicks ; Georgia, James B. Deveaux ; 
Illinois, John A. Logan; Indiana, John C. New; 
Iowa, John S. Runnelly; Kansas, John A. Mar- 
tin ; Kentucky, W. O. Bradley ; Louisiana, W. C. 
Warmouth ; Maine, William T. Fr)^e ; Maryland, 
James A. Gary ; Massachusetts, John M. Forbes ; 
Michigan, James H. Stone ; Minnesota, D. M. Sa- 
bln ; Mississippi, George McKee ; Missouri, C. J. 
rilley ; Nebraska, James W. Dawes ; Nevada, 
John W. Mackey ; New Hampshire, W. E. 
Chandler; New Jersey, George A. Halsey ; New 
York, Thomas C. Piatt ; North Carolina, W. P. 
Canady ; Ohio, W. C. Cooper ; Oregon, D. C. 
Ireland; Pennsylvania, J. D. Cameron; Rhode 
Island, W. O. Pierce ; South Carolina, Samuel 
Lee ; Tennessee, William Rule ; Texas, not 
ready; Vermont, George W. Hookei , i/irglnia, 
Samuel W. Jones ; West Virginia, John W. 
Mason ; Wisconsin, Ellhu Enos ; Arizona, R. C. 
^TcCormick; Dakota, unable to agree; District 
of Columbia, not ready ; Idaho, George L. Shoup; 
Montana, A. H. Beatty; New Mexico, S. T. El- 
kin ; Utah, W. Bennett ; Washington, S. T. Mi- 
ner ; Wyoming, Joseph L. Cary. 

As the two deleeates from Dakota were unable 
to a!7ree, Mr. Conofer moved that the National 
Committee should fill the vacancy. 

Mr. Conkling objected. 

The chair ruled the motion In order, and It was 
adopted. 



^•^g LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Mr. Drake (Minnesota) offered the following: 

Resolved, That in case of the death or resignation of a 
member of the National Central Committee, the vacancy 
may be filled by appointment by the Central Committee of 
the State, territory or district. Adopted. 

The most interesting work of the convention 
was now close at hand. The ball was opened by 
Eugene Hale, who moved a call of States for the % 
purpose of placing the various candidates in nomi- 
nation. Ten minutes was allowed for each nomi- 
nation, and five minutes to the seconder. The 
roll was then called. 

When Michigan was reached, James F. Joy took 
the platform, and said: 

"Mr. Chairman: I shall never cease to regret \ 
the circumstances under which the duty is imposed 
on me to make the nomination of a candidate in 
this convention. I have been absent from the 
country for months. Since the convention has 
been in session I have been continuously employed 
on the floor. If, therefore, words of mine are im- 
portant for the candidate who shall be proposed 
mine will benefit us not a litde. I shall, however, 
brino- him before the convention in as brief a man- 
ner as possible. It was in i860, I think, that a 
young man, born in the old Keystone State, but 
resident in the State of Maine, entered the House 
of Repr-esentatives. That was a time when the 
hr7*-*^n was darkened with clouds indicating a 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, a-^Q 

coming tempest. It was just before the war; the 
clouds burst over the country, and the war ensued 
and raged for four long years. Fortunately for 
us there were at the helm of the ship of State the 
rieht men, and It was manned with the rlcrht crew. 
Finally the strength of one of the contending par- 
ties gave way, and peace at last settled down on 
the country. Then ensued the contest for recon- 
struction, and that occupied four years more. 
During all that period of time that young man — 
always true, alwa3^s brave,, always eloquent — ap- 
plied his talents In every way necessary either to 
carry on the war or to bring about reconstruction 
on a proper basis. His reputation grew and tow- 
ered all that time, until at last, when reconstruc- 
tion had been practically secured, he stood high 
before the country, and his name became a house- 
hold word, familiar In every corner of the land and 
looked up to from all quarters. That name was 
the name of James G. Blaine. [Cheers, applause 
and waving of hats and handkerchiefs.] When 
the nomination of General Grant was made, all 
eyes In the northern section of the country were 
turned on James G. Blaine, and he canvassed the 
country from the Mississippi and beyond for that 
candidate, so that the people of the North and of 
the p-reat West became familiar with him. He had 
about him that wonderful power of attracting men 
which another great man — Henry Clay, of Ken- 
tucky — possessed in an equally eminent degree. 
26 



440 



LIFE A.KD PUBLIC CAREER OF 



" On the second nomination of General Grants 
Mr. Blaine was again called upon, and he again 
traversed the country, exercising his eloquence 
and powers. He had become so well known to 
the people that when the last Republican Conven- 
tion was held at Cincinnati, four years ago, he had . 
become the leading candidate of the Northern . 
people for the Presidency. He was the favorite 
candidate of the State which I represented in that 
convention. The delegates from Michigan went 
there with a view of urging and securing, if possi- 
ble, his nomination, and he came within a few 
votes of getting it. But for some reason the 
nomination of another candidate, who had been 
before the country — you all know, perhaps, the 
astonishment created in some sections of the 
countiy at that result and in the State which I 
have the honor to represent here — was considered 
almost a calamity to the individual members of 
the Republican party of that day ; they felt it al- 
most as a personal blow. But while he may have 
been disappointed, still when the canvass came on, 
and when it was doubtful whether the Republicans 
would succeed in electing their candidate, he, al- 
though he had been repudiated In that- conven- i 
tion, buckled on his harness, entered the tracks 
and again traversed the country, fighting man- 
fully, gloriously, vigorously, until the batUe wasj 
won." [Applause.] 

The chairman announced that the speaker': 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. a a j 

time had expired, but, on motion of Mr. Garfield, 
his time was extended. 

Mr. Joy, resuming : " The result was that he 
endeared himself to the Republicans of the North- 
west even more than before, and when this con- 
vention was called, the people of Michigan, who 
so earnestly advocated him before, again turned 
their gaze toward him. Michigan is not a doubt- 
ful State. It is a State which stands by its ban- 
ner; that no matter who may be nominated in 
this convention Michigan will stand by the Repub- 
lican banner whoever may be in the van. With 
these remarks I have the honor to present to this 
convention, as a candidate for the Presidency, the 
name of James G. Blaine." 

This was the si-jnal for a wild scene of confu- 
slon and excitement, the larger half of the audi- 
ence and all the Blaine deleofates risinof and 
cheering vociferously, and waving flags, hats, fans, 
umbrellas, anything obtainable, in the most frantic 
fashion. After order was somewhat restored, 
Mr. Pixley, of California, seconded Mr. Blaine's 
name in a speech of considerable length. Its close 
was the signal for another outburst of cheers. 
Mr. Frye followed in an electric speech of ten 
minutes, which set the galleries wild a^rain. 

Minnesota being called, Mr. E. F. Drake pre- 
sented the name of Senator William Windom. 
There was no seconder. 

When New York was called, Mr. Conkling rose, 



.A2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

mounted the reporters' platform, took a position 
on a reporter's table, and began with great delib- 
eration in clear tones and with his usual impres- 
sive manner, the nomination of General Grant. 
The speaker said: 

"The need of the hour was not a candidate who 
can carry States which are surely Republican, but 
who can carry doubtful States, South as well 
as North. Grant could carry the doubtful State 
of New York and several in the South. [Ap- 
plause.] The calumny against him had all 
been exploded; the powder had already been 
burned once and left his name untarnished. When 
those who have tried to tarnish that name shall 
have mouldered in forgotten graves. General 
Grant's fame will remain pure and bright in the 
hearts of the people. Never elated by success, 
he has manifested the very genius of success. 
He commended his civic policy in establishing in- 
ternational arbitration, in opposing inflation and 
paving the way for specie resumption. To him 
unmeasurably more than any other is due the fact 
that every paper dollar is as good as gold. With 
him as the leader we should have no defensive 
campaign. [Applause.] No ! Nothing to ex- 
plain away and no apologies to make. The shafts 
and arrows have all been aimed at him and lie 
broken at his feet." [Applause.] 

He briefly reviewed the third-term objections to 
Grant and urged diat it was no objection to any man 



I 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^j^^ 

that he had been weighed In the balance and not 
found wanting or that he had obtained experience 
which rendered him better fitted for the duties con- 
fided to his care. When he had occupied thirty 
minutes there were loud calls from the galleries of 
" Time ! Time !" but he paid no attention to them and 
was soon permitted to proceed. A little later he re- 
ferred to General Grant as being without telegraph 
wires running from liis house to this convention, 
which was evidently construed as an Insinuation 
against Mr. Blaine. This was greeted with laugh- 
ter and a storm of hisses and loud cries of "Time! 
Time!" which continued until a delegate appealed 
to the American people to listen to the gentleman, 
who asked them to hear him finish. He was then 
permitted to proceed until he referred to "elec- 
tloneerlne contrivances," which excited another 
outburst of objection. 

Mr. Conkling said: " When asked whence comes 
our candidate, we say from Appomattox. [Ap- 
plause.] Obeying instructions I should never dare 
to disregard, expressing also my own firm convic- 
tion, I rise In behalf of the State of New York, to 
propose a nomination with which the country and 
the Republican party can grandly win. The elec- 
tion before us will be the Austerlltz of American 
politics. It will decide whether for years to come 
the country shall be 'Republican or Cossack.' 

"The need of the hour is a candidate who can 
carry doubtful States North and South, and be- 



,AA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

lievlng; that he more surely than any other can 
carry New York against any opponent, and can 
carry not only the North, but several States of the 
South, New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. He 
alone of living Republicans has carried New York 
as a Presidential candidate. Once he carried it 
even according to a Democratic count, and twice 
he carried It by the people's votes, and he is 
stronger now — the Republican party, with its 
standard in his hand, is stronger now than in 1868 
or 1872. Never defeated in war or In peace, his 
name Is the most illustrious borne by any living 
man; his services attest his greatness, and the 
country knows them by heart. His fame was born 
net alone of thinors written and said, but of the 
arduous greatness of things done, and dangers and 
emergencies will search In vain in the future, as 
they have searched in vain In the past, for any 
other on whom the nation leans with such confi- 
dence and trust. Standing on the highest emi- 
nence of human destination, and having filled all 
lands with his renown, modest, simple and self- 
poised, he has seen not only the titled, but the 
poor and the lowly, in the uttermost ends of the 
earth rise and uncover before him. He has 
studied the needs and defects of many systems of 
government, and he comes back a better Amerl- 
can than ever, with a wealth of knowledge and ex- 
perience added to the hard common sense which so 
conspicuously distinguished him In all the fierce 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



445 



light that beat upon him throughout the most event- 
ful, trying and perilous sixteen years of the na- 
tion's history. Never having had *a policy to 
enforce against the will of the people,' he never 
betrayed a cause or a friend, anei the people will 
never betray or desert him. Vilified and reviled, 
truthlessly aspersed by numberless persons, not 
in other lands, but in his own, the assaults upon 
him have strengthened and seasoned his hold on 
the public heart. The ammunition of calumny has 
all been exploded, the powder has all been burned 
out, its force has spent and Grant's name will 
glitter as a bright and Imperishable star in the 
diadem of the Republic when those who have tried 
to tarnish it have mouldered In forgotten graves, 
and their niemories and epitaphs have vanished 
utterly. Never elated by success, never depressed 
by adversity, he has ever In peace, as In war, shown 
the very genius of common sense. The terms he 
prescribed for Lee's surrender foreshadowed the 
wisest principles and prophecies of true recon- 
struction." 

Toward the conclusion, Mr. Conkling said the 
convention was master of a supreme opportunity. 
It could mxake the next President, and also make 
sure of his peaceful inauguration. It could break 
that power which mildews the South. Democratic 
success was a menace to order and progress, 
which the convention could overthrow and eman- 
cipate a solid South. It could make the Republi* 



446 Z//"^ AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

can army march to certain victory with its greatest 
marshal at its head. 

It was fully twenty minutes before order could 
be restored. The Grant men in convention and 
jgalleries took a regular jubilee, and President 
Hoar had to sit down and let disorder tire itself 
out. The Grant delegation "pooled" the flags 
which marked their seats, marched round the aisles 
and cheered and yelled as if they were dwellers 
in Bedlam, just home after a long absence. Fi- 
nally Mr. Bradley, of Kentucky, was allowed to 
speak, seconding Grant's name, but it was as 
nothing after Conkling's speech. 

When Ohio was called Mr. Garfield rose, and, 
amid tremendous cheering, advanced to the place 
Mr. Conkling had just vacated.' When order was 
restored, he spoke in the following magnificent 
strain : 

"Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordi- 
nary scenes of this convention with deep solici- 
tude. No emotion touches my heart more quickly 
than a sentiment In honor of a ereat and noble 
character. But, as I sat on these seats and wqt 
nesscd these demonstrations, it seemed to me you 
were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen 
the sea lashed mto a fury and tossed into a spr;iy, 
and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest 
man. But I remember that it is not the billows, 
but the calm level of the sea from which all 
heights and depths are measured. [^YpplauseJ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 4^7 

When the storm has passed and the hour of calm 
settles on the ocean, when sunlight bathes its 
smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor 
takes the level from which he measures ail terres- 
trial heights and depths. [Applause.] Gentle- 
men of the convention, your present temper may 
not mark the healthful pulse oi our people. 
When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emo~ 
tions of this hour have subsided, we shall find the 
calm level of public opinion below the storm from 
which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be 
measured, and by which their final action will be 
determined. [Applause.] Not here, in this bril- 
liant circle where fifteen thousand men and women 
are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to 
be decreed ['That is so'] ; not here, where I see 
the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty- 
six delegates waiting to cast their votes into the 
urn and determine the choice of their party ; 
[applause] but by four million Republican firesides, 
where the thoughtful fathers, with wives and chil- 
dren about them, with the calm thoughts inspired 
by love of home and love of countr}^, with the 
history of the past, the hopes of the future, and 
tlue knowledge of the great men who have adorned 
and blessed our nation in days gone by — there 
God prepares the verdict that shall determine the 
wisdom of our work to-night. [Applause.] Not 
in Chicago in the heat of June, but in the sober 
quiet that comes between nov/ and November, In 



448 L^P^ ^-'^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the silence of deliberate judgment will this great 
question be settled. [Cries of 'Good.'] Let us 
aid them to-night. [Great applause.] 

"But now, gentlemen of the convention, what 
do we want? [A voice, 'Garheld.'] Bear with 
me a moment. Hear me for this cause, and, for 
a moment, be silent that you may hear. [Cries 
cf'Good.'] Twenty-five years ago this republic 
was wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long fa- 
miliarity widi traffic in the bodies and souls of 
men had paralyzed the consciences of a majority 
of our people. The baleful doctrine of State sov- 
ereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest 
and most beneficent powers of the national Gov- 
ernment, and the grasping power of slavery was 
seizing- the vircjin territories of the West and 
dragging them into the den of eternal bondage. 
At that crisis the Republican party was born. It 
drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty 
which God has lighted in every man's heart, and 
which ail the powers of ignorance and tyranny can 
never wholly extinguish. [Applause.] The Re- 
publican party came to deliver and save the repub- 
lic. It entered the arena when the bcleagueredj 
and assailed territories were struggling for free- 
dom, and drew around them the sacred circle of 
liberty which the demon of slavery has never 
dared to cross. It made th?m free forever. 
[Great applause, and cries of 'Good.'] Strength-] 
ened by its victory on the frontier, the young 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. , . g 

party, iinder the leadership of that great man who, 
on this spot, twenty years ago, was made Its 
leader, entered the national capital and assumed 
the high duties of the government. [Applause.] 
The light which shone from its banner dispelled 
the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the 
capital, and melted the shackles of every slave, 
and consumed, in the fire of liberty, every slave- 
pen within the shadow of the capitol. Our na- 
tional industries, by an impoverishing policy, were 
themselves prostrated, and the streams of revenue 
flowed in such feeble currents that the treasury It- 
self was well-nigh empty. The money of the 
people was the wretched notes of two thousand 
uncontrolled and irresponsible State banking cor- 
porations, which were filling the country with a 
circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the 
life of business. [Loud applause.] The Repub- 
lican party changed all this. It abolished the 
babel of confusion, and gave the country a cur- 
rency as national as its flag, based upon the sacred 
faith of the people. [Applause.] It threw Its 
protecting arm around our great industries, and 
they stood erect as with new life. It filled with 
the spirit of true nationality all the great functions 
of the government. It confronted a rebellion of 
unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, 
and, under God, fought the final battle of liberty 
until victory was won. [Applause.] Then, after 
the storms of battle, were heard the sweet, catei 



^CQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

words of peace uttered by the conquering nation, 
and saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate 
at its feet: 'This is our only revenge, that you join 
us in llftinof to the serene firmament of the Consti- 
tution, to shine like stars for ever and ever, the 
immortal principles of truth and justice, that all 
men, white or black, shall be free and stand equal 
before the law.' [Loud applause.] 

"Then came the question of reconstruction, the 
public debt, and the public faith. In the settle- 
ment of the questions the Republican party has 
completed its twenty-five years of glorious exist- 
ence, and it has sent us here to prepare it for 
another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall 
we do this great work ? We cannot do It, my 
friends, by assailing our Republican brethren. 
[Great applause and cries of * Good.'] God for- 
bid that I should say one word to cast a shadow 
upon any name on the roll of our heroes. This 
coming fight Is our Thermopylae. We are 
standing upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan 
hosts are united, we can withstand all the Persians 
that the Xerxes of Democracy can bring against 
us. Let us hold our ground this one year, for the 
stars In their courses fio^ht for us In the future. 
The census taken this year will bring re-enforce- 
mcnts and continued power. [Applause.] But 
In order to win this victory now, we want the vote 
of every Republican, of every Grant Republican 
and every anti-Grant Republican in America 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ' .rj 

[great applause], of every Blaine man and every 
antl-Blaine man. The vote of every follower of 
every candidate is needed to make our success 
certain [applause] ; therefore, I say, grentlemen 
and brethren, we are here to take calm counsel 
tog-ether, and inquire what we shall do. [A voice 
* Nominate Gariield.' Great applause.] We want 
a man whose life and opinions embody all the 
achievements of which I have spoken. We want 
a man who, standing on a mountain height, sees 
all the achievements of our past history, and car- 
ries In his heart the memory of all its glorious 
deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to meet 
the labor and the dangers to come. We want 
one who will act In no spirit of unkindness to- 
ward those we lately met In battle. The Repub- 
lican party offers to our brethren of the South the 
olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return 
to brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that It 
shall be admitted forever and forevermore, that, 
In the war for the Union, we were right and they 
were wrong. [Cheers.] On that supreme con- 
dition we meet them as brethren, and on no other. 
We ask them to share with us the blessings and 
honors of this great republic. [Applause.] 

"Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I aoi about 
to present a name for your consideration — the 
name of a man who was the comrade and associ- 
ate and friend of nearly all those noble dead 
whose faces look down upon us from these walls 



. r2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

to-nlght [cheers], a man who began his career of 
public service twenty-five years ago, whose first 
duty was courageously done in the days of peril 
on the plains of Kansas, when the first red drops 
of that bloody shower began to fall which finally 
swelled Into the deluge of war. [Cheers.] He 
bravely stood by young Kansas then, and, return- . 
ing to his duty In the National Legislature, 
'through all subsequent time his pathway has been 
marked by labors performed in every department 
of legislation. You ask for his monuments. I 
point you to twenty-five years of national statutes. 
[Cheers.] Not one great beneficent statute has 
been placed in our statute books without his In- 
telligent and powerful aid. [Cheers.] He aided 
these men to formulate the laws that raised our 
srreat armies and carried us throuq;h the war. 
His hand was seen In the workmanship of those 
statutes that restored and brought back the unit)^ 
and married calm of the States. His hand was 
In all that great legislation that created the war 
currency, and In a still greater work that redeemed 
the promises of the Government, and made the 
currency equal to gold. And when at last called 
from the halls of legislation into a high executive 
office, he displayed that experience, Intelligence, - 
firmness and poise of character which has carried 
us> through a stormy period of three years. With 
one-half the public press crying 'crucify him,' and 
a hostile Congress seeking to prevent success, in 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^q 



'> 



all this he remained unmoved until victory crowned 
him. [Applause.] The great fiscal affairs of 
the nation, and the great business interests 
of the country he has guarded and pre- 
served, while executing the law of resumption 
and effecting Its object without ajar and against 
the false prophecies of one-half of the press and 
all the Democracy of this continent. [Applause.] 
He has shown himself able to meet with calmness 
the great emergencies of the Government for 
twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous 
heights of public duty, and against all the shafts 
of malice has borne his breast unharmed. He 
has stood in the blaze of *that fierce light that 
beats against the throne,' but its fiercest ray has 
found no fiaw In his armor, no stain on his shield. 
I do not present him as a. better Republican or 
as a better man than thousands of others we 
honor, but I present him for your deliberate con- 
sideration. I nominate John Sherman, of Ohio." 
[Great applause.] 

Of this masterly effort, the Chicago Inter- Ocea7i, 
a strong Grant paper, said the following morning: 

" When Ohio is called, a form — which probably 
comes nearer the people's Ideal type of a statesman 
than any other In the convention — arises near the 
centre of the middle aisle and moves toward the 
stage amid the sharp clapping of thousands of 
hands, which increases, as General Garfield mounts 
the same table upon which Senator Conkling 



454 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Stood, to a roar of voices minified with the noise 
of stamping feet. It is noticeable that In this ova- 
tion a larcre number of delcQ^ates and alternates 
have joined. To the attention which Garfield 
always attracts is now added the romance of a 
possibility that is In every one's mind, and when- 
ever he has moved into sieht of the p-alleries 
during this convention, he has been warmly 
greeted. As he stands now on the table where 
Conkling but a few moments ago stood, many 
thousands are doubtless comparing the two men 
who, among many great men, have almost mo- 
nopolized and about equally shared the attention 
of the people. There is much of similarity, and, 
at the same time, great dissimilarity between the 
two men. Both are large in stature, and both 
would be noted, if strangers, among thousands as 
remarkable types of physical development. The 
verdict of the great majority would be probably 
that Garfield looks more like the statesman than 
the New York senator. There is a erace and 
eloquence in the person and manners of Conkling 
that approaches too near airiness to be always 
stronor In ij^ effect, but the fiirure we now see be- 
fore us is roucrh-hewn in form and ruo^ored of fca- 
ture. The verdict of the^ladles In the gallery, 
many times during the convention, is that Conk- 
ling is 'so handsome,' and Garfield *'so plain.' 
But the Ohio school-teacher, minister, legislator 
and statesman, is not plain-looking. To the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j^crcf 

beauty of great strength Is added the grace with 
which an illustrious and radiant renown will clothe 
any man. Large of form, with a huge head, the 
figure fixed like a rock on that table, while the 
building trembles with applause, is imposing, peer- 
less and grand. To all of this, Garfield's nature 
adds a charm possessed by few men — the beauty 
of a generous and affectionate nature. A big 
heart, a sympathetic nature, and a mind keenly 
sensitive to everything that is beautiful in sen^ 
ment, are the artists that shade down the gnarled 
outlines and touch with soft coloring the plain fea- 
tures of a massive face. The conception of a 
grand thought always paints a glow upon Gar- 
field's face, which no one forgets who has seen 
him while speaking. His eyes are a cold gray, 
but they are often — yes, all the time in this 
speech — lit brilliantly by the warm light of worthy 
sentiments, and the strong flame of a great man's 
ccwnviction. In speaking, he is not so restless as 
Conkling; his speech is an appeal for thought 
and calm deliberation, and he stands still like the 
rock of judgment while he delivers it. There is 
no invective or bitterness in his effort, but there 
is throughout an earnestness of convict/.on and an 
unquestionable air of sincerity, to which every 
gesture and intonation of voice is especially 
adapted." 

Whitelaw Reid telegraphed to the New York 
Tribune his opinion of this effort : " It seems to b^ 

27 



45 6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the verdict of the majority that General Garfield 
won the laurels of the night, as indeed he has of 
the convention thus far. Mr. Frye's speech, 
though eloquent, was delivered without any pre- 
paration whatever. General Garfield's speech 
was admirably adapted to make votes for his 
candidate, if speeches ever made votes. It was 
courteous, conciliatory and prudent. General 
Garfield honestly did his best for Secretary Sher- 
man, and yet the general is so popular here that 
the chief effect of his speech has been to increase 
the talk and speculation as to the possibility of 
his beine made the nominee If the situation were 

o 

different." 

The Chicago yournal said editorially: "The 
supreme orator of the evening was General Gar- 
field. He is a man of superb power and noble 
character. The name of John Sherman could not 
have been better presented. His claims upon the 
good opinion of the American people — and they 
are very great — were urged in a way worthy the 
occasion. He indulged in no fling at others. It 
was a model speech in temper and tone. The im- 
pression made was powerful and altogether whole- 
some. Many felt that if Ohio had offered Garfield 
instead of Sherman, she would have been more 
likely to win." 

Sherman's nomination was seconded by Winkler, 
of Wisconsin, and Eliott (colored), of South Caro- 
lina, Vermont being called, Mr. Billings rose to 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ,^7 

put In nomination Senator Edmunds, and said that 
no State could have a better right to name a Re- 
publican candidate and none could name a better 
man. Republicanism runs in Vermont's blood. 
The man whom she named for the Presidency was 
no longer hers — he was the property and pride of 
the nation. Vermont looked forward throuo^h the 
years and saw the ignominy and crime of giving 
up the Government to a revolutionary Democracy, 
and she implored this convention to let nothing 
put the Republican victory in peril, but to make 
that victory secure by putting on the platform a 
candidate far better even than the platform — a 
candidate weak nowhere, but strong everywhere 
— the incarnation of the principles of that platform. 
Any other course foreboded disaster and courted 
defeat. Such a candidate as was needed was that 
brave, keen, vigilant man on whom rested no 
shadow of evil report, the leader of the Senate, 
George F. Edmunds. [Cheers and applause.] 
Vermont nominated him for the Presidency, and 
asked the convention to accept him. [Applause.] 
The nomination was seconded by Mr. Sanford, of 
Massachusetts. 

Mr. Cassidy, of Wisconsin, then presented the 
name of Elihu B. Washburnc, of Illinois, who was 
seconded by Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut. 

All the nominees being now named, and as it 
was within a few minutes of Sunday morning, the 
convention adjourned until Monday morning. 



A eg LIFE AND PUBLIC CARE^IR OF 

Half an hour later the great hall, that had re- 
sounded to the thunders of oratory, was empty 
and silent as the great men's portraits on the 
walls. 






i 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



459 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



A DAY OF DOUBT. 




UNDAY at Chicago was passed In feverish 
marches and counter-marches, combina- 
tions, plots, arguments, speeches, dining 
and wining, rest for some and church for a few. 
Every nerve was strained to correct badly-con- 
structed lines, to strengthen wavering delegates 
to capture new ones and to repair every weak 
spot in the chain of defenses. This, of course, 
lent to the work of Monday only a problematical 
outcome. No one could say exactly just what 
would happen, or predict, with the same reasona- 
ble certainty possible to the prophets on Friday 
night. Every one waited and hoped. 

One of the clever correspondents at the con- 
vention, described the opening services of Mon- 
day morning in his special : 

"The sun rose In a cloudless sky this morning, 
and a gentle, cool breeze from the lake promised 
a charming day for the great conflict. There was 
active stir in all the camps at an early hour, and 
spirited skirmishing began with cocktails and ex- 
tended throughout the halls, corridors, breakfast- 
rooms and street corners. The crowd had been 



460 



LTPE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



considerably thinned out since Saturday nignt. 
Many of the most boisterous elements, who were 
too expensive as strikers to be continued on duty 
Indefinitely, had dropped out of the battle ; but 
the effective soldiery of all sides remained, and 
the rank and file seemed more impatient than the . 
leaders for the struggle. The hour of meeting 
was the earliest that could be named, but most of 
the crowd and many delegates were clamoring at 
the barred doors lonof before. There was not 
that effervescence of wild expectation that was 
displayed when the same people first crowded into 
Exposition Hall on Wednesday morning. Their 
faces were freshened by rest, but they had been 
sobered by the realities of the contest and the 
gravity of its hue. When they first came to en- 
compass the convention and its multitude of 
witnesses, they were ardent and reckless as en- 
thusiastic volunteers who expected a harmless 
brush with the enemy and an easy victory. To- 
day they wore the calmer and disciplined marks 
of veterans. It was plainly told on every face 
that the battle must be desperate, and none felt 
entirely assured of triumph. When the doors 
were opened hurried streams of humanity poured 
In at every entrance, and when the hour arrived 
for President Hoar to swing his gavel, all the 
portions of the hall within possible hearing of 
the proceedings were jammed to the uttermost. 
Even the reserved platform of the correspondents 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



461 



was Invaded by the crowd, until communication 
with the hundred batteries which maintained their 
ceaseless clicking hard by was almost entirely 
interrupted. The ladies gave their wealth of 
smiles upon the conflict of the political giants in 
greater profusion than at any previous session, 
and the distinguished guests were wedged in 
upon each other as If they were no more than 
common flesh and blood. 

"Hoar came In ahead of time, and looked serene 
as a summer morning that welcomed him to his 
task, and his face was fresh as the roses which 
shed their exquisite tints and fragrance on his 
table. He has borne himself so well, so impar- 
tially, and so Intelligently that all felt assured of a 
faithful umpire In the desperation of the last 
charge of the contending hosts. Alabama, as 
usual, was first to present a full delegation ; and 
Arkansas, just behind her, speedily followed. The 
colored troops were generally among the first to 
the front, and they evidently meant to fight nobly. 
Conkling was mindful of the potency of dramatic 
strategy, and knew that he would meet his grand- 
est welcome as he passed before his allies to lead 
them In the hand-to-hand struggle. He waited 
until just before the time for calling to order, and 
then strode into the hall with that maofnificent 
bearing that none of his rivals could Imitate. As 
soon as his tall form and silvered crown were 
visible the shout went up that all understood, and 



462 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



It was heartier and longer than ever before. He 
walked down the aisle with the utmost composure, 
and gracefully bowed his recognition of the hom- 
agfe tendered him. Garfield Is the member of the 
convention who divides with Conkling the popular 
welcome at every opening. 

" He received a royal welcome when he entered, 
and his strong, rugged features lightened like the 
rippled lake with Its dancing sunshine. Cameron 
was active, silent and determined as ever. He 
flitted hurriedly among the distinguished guests 
before the signal-gun was fired, and then retired 
to his Immediate command. Hale and Frye were 
among the first to take their position, and hope 
and fear were plainly wrestling with each other on 
their faces. Hale was pale with anxiety, and the 
usually flushed features of Frye were redder than 
are their wont. Both seemed well poised and 
reasonably self-relig-nt, but the contrast between 
their nervous apprehensions and the calm defiance 
of Conkling was a study for the Intelligent ob- 
servers of men. Chandler was restless, and his 
little face seemed to have shrunk away behind his 
eye-glasses. 

"Locr^n w^as as calm as the dark cloud that Is 
just waking to hurl Its thunderbolt. He sat as 
still as a statue, his sv\^arthy features appearing 
darker than usual, and his fierce black eyes now 
and then darting out their most defiant flashes, 
He seemed conscious that his leader was beaten. 






JAMES A. GARFIELD. j^5^ 

but he was evidently resolved that there should be 
a costly retreat for the pursuing hosts. Garfield, 
Foster, Dennison, Bateman, Butterfield and other 
Ohio leaders were to be seen in lltde knots of 
their delegation, as if they feared defection at an 
early stage of the contest, and there was evident un- 
rest amone the Indiana men. General Harrison's 
short form and sharply-cut features were shaded 
with anxiety. He feared Grant, and no^v that 
Grant seemed to be beaten, he w^as impressed 
with the possibility of the grandson of a President 
beino- the choice of exhausted factions. General 
Sewell sat in front of Conkling and his youthful 
face exhibited the coolness and determination 
which characterized him in the heat of battle. As 
far as faces could be distinguished In the great 
arena, all seemed to be soberly anxious for the 
order to advance. 

"When President Pi oar called the convention to 
order there was a speedy hush, and the vast mul- 
titude was seated with wonderful alacrity. All 
seemed anxious for the fight to begin. The min- 
ister who opened with prayer shared the general 
eppreclatlon of the value of the fleeting moments, 
and his petition had the merit of brevity." 

The chair, at the conclusion of the prayer, an- 
nounced that during the balloting he would not 
allow any delay, debate or tricks, by changing 
votes after they were once cast. 

Eugene Hale thereupon moved: "That the 



464 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



convention proceed to ballot." Senator Cenkllng 
seconded the motion, and the roll-call was be^un 
in a silence that showed how Intense was the 
anxiety to know the worst or best. The result 
was announced by the secretaries, as follows : 

States. Grant. Blaine. Sherman. Edmunds. Windom. Washburne 

Alabama 16 i 3 



Arkansas 


12 


• • • 


• • • 


California 


• • « 


12 


• • • 


Colorado 


6 


• • • 


• • • 


Connecticut 


• • • 


3 


• • • 


Delaware 


• • • 


6 


• • • 


Florida 


8 
6 


• • • 

8 




Georgia 


8 


Illinois 


24 
I 

• • • 


10 
26 
22 




Indiana 


2 


Iowa 


• • • 


Kansas 


4 
20 


6 

I 




Kentucky 


3 


Louisiana 


8 


2 


6 


Maine 


• • • 


14 


• • • 


Maryland 


7 


7 


2 


Massachusetts.... 


3 


• • • 


2 


Michigan 


I 


21 


• • • 


Minnesota 


■ • • 


• • • 


• • • 


Mississippi 


6 


4 


6 


Missouri 


29 


• • • 


• « ■ 


Nebraska 


• • • 


6 


• • • 


Nevada 


• • • 


6 


• • • 


New Hampshire. 


• • • 


IP 


• • • 


New Jersey 




16 


• • • 


New York 


51 


17 


2 



20 



10 



8 
I 



Carried forward, 201 198 34 



22 



10 



20 



•pm ••• ••• 



• • ■ 



• •• • • • • • • 



• • • 



• • • 



••• ••• ••• 



• •• 



• • • 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^5j 

States. Grant. Blaine. Sherman. Edmunds. Windom. Washburne. 

Brought forward, 20 1 198 34 22 10 20 

North Carolina.. 6 ... 14 

Ohio 9 34 I 

Oregon 6 

Pennsylvania 32 23 3 

Rhode Island 8 

South Carolina... 13 ... i 

Tennessee 16 6 i i 

Texas 11 2 2 ... .... i 

Vermont ... 10 

Virginia 18 3 i 

West Virginia i 8 

Wisconsin 17 3 ... ... 9 

Arizona 2 

Dakota i i 

Dis't of Columbia i i 

Idaho 2 

Montana 2 ... ... ... ... 

New Mexico 2 

Utah.... I I 

Washington i i 

Wyoming i i 



m 



... 



... » • • 



... ... 



... ... 



. *. ... 



. .. 



... ... ... 



.. . 



... ... ••* 



Total 304 284 93 34 10 30 

The incidents of this ballot were few and not 
very remarkable. There was faint applause when 
Arkansas voted solid for Grant, but all sides 
joined in hissing it down. When Pixley announced 
California's vote for Blaine, in a dramatic fashion, 
and with a sentence thrown in for the galleries, the 
President rose and notified the chairmen of dele- 
gations that no comment of any kind would be 



466 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



allowed. When Conkling rose to announce the 
vote of New York, every one strained forward to 
catch his words. In a distinct voice he responded 
"Two votes are reported for Sherman, seventeen 
for Blaine, and fifty-one are for Grant." This 
method of announcement was Conklino-'s inevit- 
able sneer for his opponents. Ohio threw a wet 
blanket on the Sherman men by casting nine 
votes for Blaine, and the announcement bright- 
ened the faces of a vast majority of spectators. 
Pennsylvania was another of the States that si- 
lenced the audience when called, and she was 
about to declare how Cameron had held the Grant 
lines against the Blaine assaults. General Bea- 
ver thundered out: " Pennsylvania votes thirty- 
two for Grant, twenty-three for Blaine, and three 
for Sherman." After this there was but litde in- 
terest, and the ballot closed In the most orderly 
manner. The result brought shouts from the 
Grant men, and some disappointment to the 
Blaine leaders. The moment the vote was an- 
nounced the President ordered another, holding 
that nothing was In order but voting; and before 
the leaders could look to their lines they were In 
action again by the prompt roll-call. The second 
ballot was uneventful, the third and fourth thf. 
same. The changes in these, and the succeeding 
ballots of the afternoon were very slight — except 
the nomination of Garfield by a vote from Grier, 
a Pennsylvania delegate, and made without any 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 4^y 

particular idea of permanency. A recess was 
several times proposed but voted down, and there 
were a score of little incidents that were eventful 
for only the brief minutes of their existence. 
The last ballot taken at the morninof session was 
the eighteenth, and immediately after its an- 
nouncement, on motion of a Sherman man from 
Mississippi, a recess was ordered until seven 
o'clock. The various ballots of this session were 
as follows : 





ISt. 


2d. 


3d. 


4th. 


5th. 


6th. 


7th. 


8th. 


9th. 


Grant 


304 


3^5 


305 


305 


305 


305 


305 


306 


308 


Blaine 


284 


282 


282 


281 


281 


281 


281 


284 


282 


Sherman... 


93 


94 


93 


95 


95 


95 


94 


91 


90 


Edmunds.. 


34 


32 


32 


32 


32 


31 


32 


31 


31 


Washburn e 30 


3^ 


31 


30 


30 


31 


31 


32 


32 


Windom .. 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield... 


• • ■ 


• • • 


I 


I 


I 


2 


2 


I 


2 


Harrison.. 


• • • 


• • • 


I 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 




loth. 


nth. 


i2th. 


13th. 


14th. 


iSth. 


16th. 


17th. 


i8th. 


Grant 


305 


306 


304 


305 


305 


309 


306 


3^3 


305 


Blaine 


282 


281 


283 


285 


2^5 


281 


283 


284 


283 


Sherman... 


92 


92 


92 


89 


89 


8S 


8S 


90 


91 


Edmunds.. 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


31 


Washburn e 


■ 32 


32 


33 


32 


35 


3^ 


3^ 


3^ 


35 


Windom... 


10 


II 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


Garfield... 


2 


2 


I 


I 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


«*• • 


Hayes 


I 


I 


I 


• • « 


• * • 


• « • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


McCrary.. 


• • • 


• • • 


• « • 


I 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


Davis 


• • 4 


• • • 


• • • 


• • • 


• • * 


• • • 


• • • 


I 


« • • 



The evening session started rather noisily and 
there was some slight trouble to keep order as 



. ^g LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the call went on. The announcement of the iirst 
ballot at this session was greeted by the Sherman 
men with cheers, who saw their candidate was 
making a hole in the Blaine column. There was 
nothing of importance to disturb the situation of 
the Grant people. They held their own through 
the recess and came back showing their determi- 
nation to stick by their candidate to the last. It 
was very clear there had been no wholesale re- 
pairing of fences since the adjournment, and it 
began to look like an all-night siege. The vary- 
ing fortunes of the different candidates are shown 
by the*votes tabulated below, it is hardly necessary 
to summarize them in detail. 

After the twenty-seventh ballot, Morse, of Mas- 
sachusetts, proposed an adjournment till the next 
morning. It was nearly half past nine, and the 
hall was excessively hot. Not less than twelve 
thousand people were overlooking the progress of 
the ballot, and at the conclusion of each call, while 
the secretaries were footing up the totals, this im- 
mense audience would rise with one accord to 
rest, by change of position, and the movement was 
suggestive of the distant roar of a coming storm. 
It was undeniably a brilliant scene at this time, 
but nobody could shut his ear to the fact that the 
multitude of spectators was a hindrance to busi- 
ness. Morse's motion to adjourn was withdrawn 
and another ballot was ordered, after which a mo- 
tion to adjourn was carried by 446 to 303, and ^he 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^5^ 

convention, at ten P. M., adjourned till ten A. M. 
the next morning. The ballots cast at the evening 
session were as follows : 

19th, aoth. 2ist. 22d. 23d. 24th. 25th. 26th. 27th. 28th. 

Grant 305 308 305 305 304 305 302 303 306 307 

Blaine 279 276 276 275 275 279 281 280 277 279 

Sherman 96 93 96 97 97 93 94 93 93 91 

Edmunds 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 

Washburne 32 35 35 35 ^^^ 35 35 zd 36 35 

Windom 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 

Garfield 1111222212 

Hartranft i i i i 



• t* ••% ••• «*« . '*■ » W «) 



470 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE people's choice. 

THE convention had now been in session 
for five days, and the result was not 
reached ; the country was impatient, the 
people were anxious for the termination of the 
bacde. All Chicago rose on June 8th, with a set- 
tled wish that "to-day might setde it/' The wish 
was father to the thought. The politicians be- 
lieved it would as they strolled out of their hotels, 
boarding-houses and resting-places, and streamed 
in the direction of the Exhibition building. 

General Garfield came forth from the Grand 
Pacific, arm-in-arm with his friend. Governor Fos- 
ter, of Ohio. The suspicion that he would before 
nightfall be the nominee of the strongest party In 
the country for Its president, never entered his 
head. 

"I think, Charlie," said Garfield, "we shall get 
through with this business of president-making, 
to-day." 

"Yes," returned Foster, "the delegates are all 
getting tired and want to go home." 

"I am quite sure they will select a candidate 
before another adjournment/' continued Garfield, 



yAMES A. GARFIELD, ^-y 

"I hope it will be our man," answered Foster. 

" Honest John Sherman will be nominated, and 
again Ohio will be made proud by the work oi 
the convention." 

** Amen," said Foster, " let us all take heart and 
work." 

"Yes, that Is the wordf* cried Garfield. "Work! 
work ! work !" and the two friends continued on 
down the street. 

As Garfield turned a corner, one of the hundreds 
of people who were thrusting advertisements, circu- 
lars and political squibs into the hands of passers- 
by, pressed a little piece of paper upon him, which he 
accepted mechanically, and as mechanically glanced 
at. His eye caught "Acts iv, ii." Thinking he 
would not throw a Bible-leaf into the mud, he 
rolled It up and put It In his pocket, where he 
afterward found It, and continued his walk. Had 
he read It, the spirit of Its prophecy would, no 
doubt, have struck him, as the words of that verse 
are these: "This Is the stone which was set at 
nought of you builders, which Is become the head 
of the corjier. Neither is there salvation In any 
other: for there Is none other name under 
heaven given among men, whereby we must be 
saved." Acts iv, i i-i 2. 

These, however, are but curious coincidences 

that, no doubt, would have exceedingly worked 

upon people of a superstitious turn of mind. 

But It was only the action of the convention 

28 



.^o LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

4/2 

which met an hour late that morning, that gave 
them their value. When it was opened, the rev- 
erend gentleman who asked the blessing of the 
Almighty, voicing the popular heart, prayed that 
the delegates might soon be restored to their 
friends. The call of the States was then ordered 
for the twenty-ninth ballot, for president. The re- 
sult was 305 for Grant; 278 for Blaine; 116 for 
Sherman; 12 foj- Edmunds; 35 for Washburne; 
7 for Windom, and 2 for Garfield. 

There were some indications as the thirtieth 
ballot progressed that the lesser candidates were 
giving way. Great amusement was created to- 
ward the close by the announcement of one vote 
from Wyoming for General Phil Sheridan Sheri- 
dan was on the stage near the chair, and when he 
was a moment after discovered by the people a 
shout went up from all over the house. He 
finally arose and said that he was very much 
obliged, but he couldn't take the nomination unless 
he were permitted to turn it over to his best 
friend. The galleries saw the point of this, since 
Sheridan's best friend is Grant, and all the Grant 
delegates made the best of the opportunity by an 
outburst of enthusiasm. The chair also detected 
the point, and said that while the distinguished 
soldier had been given permission to interrupt the 
order of the convention, it would be granted no 
one else. 

The next ballot demonstrated that the Orant 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^y ^ 

lines could not be broken, and the Blaine lines 
were at this time wavering. It was apparent the 
convention wass on the edge of a break. The 
next ballot, which was finished by half-past twelve, 
was without exciting event. The close of the 
'thirty-fourth was marked v/ith some excitement, 
growing out of a break to Garfield, Wisconsin 
casting for him thirty-six votes. This was the be- 
ginning of the end. To make up this breach, 
Washburne, Blaine and Sherman were drawn 
upon. When it was declared. General Garfield 
arose and addressed the chair. The chairman In- 
quired for what purpose the gentleman rose. 

" To a question of order," said Garfield. 

" The gendeman will state it," said the chair. 

" I challenee," said Mr. Garfield, " the correct- 
ness of the announcement that contains votes for 
me. No man has a right, without the consent of 
the person voted for, to have his name announced 
and voted for in this convention. Such consent I 
have not given." 

This was overruled by the chairman amidst 
laughter against Garfield, who had made the point 
on the vote cast for him by Wisconsin. 

Then the thirty-fifth ballot was taken, and 
proved the most interesting one of the day so far. 
The call was quick, and the people began to show 
better spirits. It was apparent that the Blaine 
movement had broken up. The ballot resulted as 
follows : 



474 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



States and Territories. . a 

c s 

C 'a 

O « 

Alabama i6 4 

Arkansas 12 

California 12 

Colorado 6 

Connecticut 3 

Delaware 6 

Florida 8 

Georgia 8 9 

Illinois 24 10 

Indiana i 2 

Iowa 22 

Kansas 4 6 

Kentucky 20 i 

Louisiana 8 4 

Maine 14 

Maryland 7 3 

Massachusetts 4 

Michigan 1 21 

Minnesota i 6 

Mississippi 8 4 

Missouri 29 

Nebraska 6 

Nevada 6 

New Hampshire 10 

Newjersey 14 

New York. 50 18 

North Carolina 6 

Ohio 9 

Oregon 6 

Pennsylvania 36 20 

Rhode Island 8 



f5 






3 

4 

• • • 

2 
21 



2 
2 

13 

34 



•8 

B 

3 

s 

•a 



o 

•a 



I/) 



8 






Carried forward 249 224 89 



22 



34 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



475 



States and Territories ^ 

a 

Brought forward 249 

South Carolina 11 

Tennessee 17 

Texas 13 

Vermont 

Virginia 16 

West Virginia i 

Wisconsin 2 

Arizona 

Dakota i 

District of Columbia... i 

Idaho 

Montana 

Nfew Mexico 

Utah I 

Washington 

Wyoming i 



•a 

224 
I 

4 
I 

* • • 

3 

8 

2 
2 
I 
I 
2 
2 
2 
I 
2 
I 



M 



V 

in 
89 

2 

3 
I 

• « • 

3 
I 



•a 

c 

D 

6 

W 



10 



o 

c 



Totals 313 257 



99 



II 



£ 
.0 



22 



2 

O 

34 



23 50 



The call of the States for the thirty-sixth ballot 
began amidst considerable excitement. A dele- 
gate thus described It: "Everybody saw that 
Blaine was now out of the way, and it was a mat- 
ter of beating Grant, so far as the opposition was 
concerned. It was evident, too, that it would have 
to be done with Garfield, and Connecticut led off 
on this ballot with eleven votes for him. The 
most of the Washburne vote of Illinois followed 
this, and when Indiana was called, General Har^ 
rlson cast twenty-nine of her thirty votes fqi* Gar^ 



476 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



field. The storm at this point broke. The people 
rose up and gave one tremendous cheer, and hats 
and handkerchiefs were tossed high, as they had 
so often been before. The confusion had not 
fairly subsided when Iowa followed with twenty- 
two votes for Garfield, and the outburst was re- 
newed and gained in force with every fresh start. 
A little further down Maine cast her fourteen 
votes for the Ohio man, and the cheering was 
greater than ever. The confusion was so great 
that it was almost Impossible to go on with the 
call. The delegations of Maryland, Massachu- 
setts, Michigan, Minnesota and Mississippi each 
insisted on an individual roll-call, and the Blaine 
and Sherman votes nearly all turned up for Gar- 
field. Conkling was dodging about a good deal 
at this time, but it dawned upon the Grant men 
that all was up with them. They were well dis- 
ciplined, however, and hung together all the way 
down the call. It was getting down to Pennsyl- 
vania. Cameron sat Imperturbable in the midst of 
his delegates, and was repeatedly urged to cast 
the solid Pennsylvania delegation for Blaine on 
this ballot. This would have prevented the nomi- 
nation of Garfield on that ballot, at least, and 
might have stayed the Garfield cyclone by getting 
Blaine back on the track; but Cameron at this 
time would not acknowledo^e that Garfield could 
go through as he did go. 

'^Ohio was finally called. The delegation had 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^jj 

m 

been thrown Into confusion and it was some time 
In getting around, but it finally turned up with 
forty-three for Garfield, the missing delegate 
being Garfield himself. The convention relapsed 
into cheers again, but recovered In a moment to 
hear General Beaver announce the Pennsylvania 
vote as thirty-seven for Grant, twenty-one for 
Garfield. Gordon had swung around to Grant, 
and Hays, who had voted for Blaine, felt himself 
released when Maine virtually put him out of the 
field, and went with the Grant people. The 
Grant men got In a little cheer here, but it was of 
short life. As the call went on, as well as It 
could In the confusion, the Blaine delegates 
wheeled Into line for Garfield. Vermont was 
wildly cheered when the ten Edmunds votes 
swung around, and Wisconsin's eighteen following 
shortly after, gave the man from Ohio a majority 
of the whole number. 

"The thousands had kept tally and knew this. 
There was a momentary hush, as If the seven or 
eight thousand people were taking breath, and 
then the storm burst, and while the cheering 
went on the banners of the several States were 
borne to the place where Ohio's delegation sat, 
Garfield in the midst of them, and there was a 
scene almost equal to that of mid-night on Fri- 
day. The band was playing *The Batde-Cry of 
Freedom' at the lower end of the hall, and when 
the cheerino- subsided for a moment the air was 



47^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



taken up and sung In chorus by thousands of 
voices. Everywhere flags were waving and on 
the outside of the building cannon were booming 
and thousands were cheering. This went on for 
a quarter of an hour, during which time ConkHng 
sat in his place at the head of his delegation with- 
out show of emotion of any sort. Efforts were 
made to get Garfield out, but he remained hidden 
in the midst of his Ohio friends." 

The ballot resulted as tabulated : 



States. Vote 

Alabama 20 

Arkansas 12 

California 12 

Colorado 6 

Connecticut 12 

Delaware 6 

Florida 8 

Georgia 22 

Illinois 42 

India."^a 30 

Iowa 22 

Kansas 10 

Kentucky 24 

Louisiana 16 

Maine 14 

Maryland 16 

Massachusetts 26 

Michigan 22 

Minnesota 10 



Grant. 


Blaine. 


Sherman. 


Washbume. 


Garfield. 


16 


4 


• • 






• • • 


12 


• • • 


• • « 






• • • 


• • • 


12 


• • 






• • • 


6 


« • • 


• • 






• • • 


• • 


I 


• • 






II 


• • • 


6 


• • a 






• • • 


8 


• • • 


• • « 






• • • 


8 


10 


1 

M 






I 


24 


6 


• • 






7 


I 


• • • 


• • 1 






29 


• • • 


• • • 


• * 






22 


4 


• • • 


• • < 






6 


20 


I 


• • 






3 


8 


• • • 


• • a 






8 


« ■ • 


• • • 


• • « 






14 


6 


« • • 


• • 1 






10 


4 


• • • 


• • A 






22 


r 


• • • 


• • « 






21 


2 


• • ■ 


• • I 






8 






_. 









Carried forward, 330 120 40 



162 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^jg 

States. Vote. Grant. Blaine, Sherman. Washbume. Garfield, 

Brought forward, 330 120 40 3 5 162 

Mississippi 16 7 ... ... ... 9 

Missouri 30 29 ... ... ... i 

Nebraska 6 ... ... ... ... 6 

Nevada 62 i ... ... 3 

New Hampshire. 10 ... ... ... ... 10 

New Jersey 18 ... ... ... ... 18 

New York 70 50 ... ... ... 20 

North Carolina,. 20 5 ... ... ... 15 

Ohio 44 ••• ••• ••• ••• 43 

Oregon 6 ... . . ... ... 6 

Pennsylvania 58 37 ... ... ... 21 

Rhode Island.... 8 ... ... ... ... 8 

South Carolina... 14 8 ... ... ... 6 

Tennessee 24 15 i ... ... 8 

Texas 16 13 ... ... .... 3 

Vermont 10 ... ... ... ••• ^o 

Virginia.. 22 19 ... ... ... 3 

West Virginia 10 i ... ... ... 9 

Wisconsin 20 ... ... ... ... 20 

Arizona 2 ... ... ... ..-* 2 

Dakota 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Dis't of Columbia 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Idaho 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Montana 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

New Mexico 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Utah 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Washington 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Wyoming 2 ... ... ... ... 2 

Total .755 306 42 3 5 399 

This was the thirty-sixth and last ballot taken. 



o IFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

and completed a remarkable series of votes. In 
detail they were as here given : 



J C "i 



Ballot. g -5 fc ^ | .S 

c5 S c^ ^ S ^ 

1 304 284 93 30 34 10 

2 305 282 94 31 32 10 

3 305 282 93 31 32 10 

4 305 281 95 31 32 10 

5 305 281 95 31 32 10 

6 305 280 95 31 32 10 

7 305 281 94 31 32 10 

8 306 284 91 32 31 10 

9 308 282 90 32 31 10 

10 305 282 92 33 31 10 

II 305 281 93 32 31 10 

12 304 283 92 33 31 10 

13 305 285 89 2>l 31 10 

14 305 285 89 35 31 10 

15 309 281 ^Z 36 31 10 

16 306 283 ZZ 36 31 10 

17 303 284 90 id 31 10 

18 305 283 91 35 31 10 

19 305 279 96 32 31 10 

20 308 276 93 35 31 10 

21 305 276 96 35 31 10 

22 305 275 97 35 31 10 

23 304 275 97 id 31 10 

24 305 279 93 35 31 10 

25 302 281 94 35 31 10 

26 303 2S0 93 i^ 31 10 

27 306 277 93 36 31 10 

28 307 279 91 35 31 10 

29 305 278 116 35 12 7 



2' 

u. 




i 




McCrary 

Davis, of 
Texas. 

PInrtranft 
of Pa. 


• • • 

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• • • 


m • • a** • * 
• •• aaa • • • 


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... 


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2 


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• •• •** • » • 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



481 



Ba llot. -g ^ 

t "^ 

30 306 279 

31 308 276 

32 309 270 

33 309 276 

34 312 275 

35 'i'^Z 257 

36 306 42 



i 


1 


3 

s 


120 


33 




118 


37 




117 


44 




no 


44 




107 


30 




99 


23 




3 


5 


• • • 



c "€ >, c o > d t;i« 

■ - S rt c! Ort(-(rtO 

^ 6 K K S fi^ W 

4 2 

3 I 

3 I ••• 

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/I- X/ ••• ••! ••• ••• ••• 

3 50 

... 399 



At the announcement of Garfield's nomination, 
the people again stood upon the benches to hur- 
rah and yell in the old way. In the midst of it, the 
tall form of Logan rose up and sought to catch 
the eye of the President. Conkling was standing 
in the aisle seeking the same thing. As soon as 
order was restored, the latter was recognized, and 
in a husky voice, sadly in contrast with his tones 
before the result, he said : 

"Mr. Chairman: James A. Garfield, of Ohio, 
having received a majority of all the votes cast, 
I rise to move that he be unanimously presented 
as the nominee of the convention. The chair, 
under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my 
feet I avail myself of the opportunity to congratu- 
late the Republican party of the nation on the 
good-natured and well-tempered disposition which 
has distinguished this animated convention. [Cries 
of 'Louder!' from the galleries.] I should like to 
speak louder, but having sat here under a cold 



482 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



wind I find myself unable to do so. I was about 
to say, Mr. Chairman, that I trust that the zeal, 
the fervor and now the unanimity of the scenes of 
the convention will be transplanted to the field of 
the country, and that all of us who have borne a part 
against each other will be found with equal zeal 
bearing the banners and carrying the lances of 
the Republican party into the ranks of the enemy." 
[Applause.] 

As he sat down, John A. Logan got up and 
spoke: 

" Gentlemen of the Convention: We are to be 
cono^ratulated at having^ arrived at a conclusion in 
respect to presenting the name of a candidate to 
be the standard-bearer of the Republican party 
for President of the United States in union and 
harmony with each other. Whatever may have 
transpired in this convention that may have pro- 
duced feelings of annoyance will be, I hope, con- 
sidered as a matter of the past. I, with the 
friends of one of the grandest men on the face of 
the earth, stood here to fight a friendly battle for 
his nomination, but this convention has chosen 
another leader and the men who stood by Grant 
will be seen in the front of the contest for Mr. 
Garfield. [Cheers.] We will go forward in the 
contest, not with tied hands, not with sealed lips, 
not with bridled tongues, but to speak the truth 
in favor of the grandest party that has ever been 
organized in this country, to maintain its prin- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j^g^ 

ciples, to uphold its power, to preserve its as- 
cendency, and my judgment is that, with the 
leader whom you have chosen, victory will perch 
on our banners. [Cheers.] As one of the Re- 
publicans from Illinois I second the nomination of 
James A. Garfield and hope it will be made unani- 
mous." [Cheers.] 

Two of the senatorial triumvirate, the grand 
trio that had come to Chicago to nominate Grant 
and had been defeated, had now spoken. Penn- 
sylvania was wanted to complete it. General 
Beaver a minute later rose, stood in his delegation 
and addressed the vast gathering: 

"The State of Pennsylvania having had the 
honor of first nominating in this convention the 
gentleman who has been chosen as the standard- 
bearer of the Republican party in the approaching 
national contest, I rise to second the motion which 
has been made to make the nomination unani- 
mous, and to assure this convention and the peo- 
ple of the country that Pennsylvania is heartily in 
accord with the nomination [cheers]; that she 
gives her full concurrence to it, and that this 
country may expect from her the greatest major- 
ity that has been given for a Presidential candi- 
date in many years." 

Then the defeated leader of the Blaine forces, 
Eugene Hall, stepped into the line and spoke for 
his friends: 

"Standing here to return our heartfelt thanks 



484 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



to the many men in this convention who have 
aided us in the fig^ht that we made for the senator 
from Maine, and speaking for them here, as I 
know that I do, T say this most heartily. We have 
not got the man whom we hoped to nominate 
when we came here, but we have got a man in 
whom we have the greatest and most marked con- 
fidence. The nominee of this convention is no 
new or untried man, and in that respect he is no 
*dark horse.' When he came here representing 
his State in the front of his delegation, and was 
seen here, every man knew him, because of his 
record ; and because of that, and because of our 
faith In him, and because we were, in the emer- 
gency, glad to help make him the candidate of the 
Republican party for President of the United 
States ; because, I say, of these things I stand here 
to pledge the Maine forces in this convention to 
earnest efforts from now until the ides of Novem- 
ber to help carry him to the Presidential chair." 
[Cheers.] 

The nomination was then made unanimous, 
amid the wildest excitement, and at half-past two 
a recess was taken until five P. M. The evening 
session was short, and resulted in the choice of 
Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for the second 
place on the ticket, and the convention adjourned 
sme die, after one of the most gigantic political 
struec^les ever recorded. 

Here, for a-moment, we must turn aside to re- 



James A. GARFIELD. .gc- 

late a little incident, that had just happened in 
another city. General Garfield owns a residence, 
as the reader knows, in Washington. During his 
absence it was occupied by his private stenog- 
rapher, Mr. George W. Rose. This gentleman 
says: 

"On the day of the general's nomination for 
President, at about the very moment of absolute 
time (as the Signal Service Bureau would say) 
that the nomination was made, allowing for the 
difference in longitude between here and Chicago, 
a magnificent bald eacfle, after circlinof round the 
Park, swooped down and rested on the general's 
house. One of my children was playing out of 
doors at the time, and ran in to call the attention 
of the family to this striking spectacle. Several 
of the family and myself went out and saw the 
source of the child's wonder. Before the eao^le 
rose from its strange perch a dozen people noticed 
and commented upon it. An old Roman would 
have seen in this an augury of the most inspiring 
character. But we Americans are free from su- 
perstitions, and so it was a mere 'coincidence.' " 

Yet, as a coincidence, a most inspiriting one. 



ng LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

HOW IT HAPPENED AND WHAT WAS SAID OF IT. 

THE nomination of General Garfield was an 
entirely spontaneous movement. He was 
not put in nomination with any thunders 
of eloquence — he had no long list of politicians to 
urge and manage his candidacy. He did not seek 
the place, it sought him. He was not a candidate 
for the nomination. When his name first came 
to be mentioned in connection with the office, he 
caused to be published in the Cleveland Herald, 
the following: 

"We are authorized to say that all statements 
made either in the press or by private persons, 
that General Garfield has changed his views in re- 
gard to the canvass of Secretary Sherman for the 
Presidency, are absolutely without foundation. 
General Garfield is not, and will not be a candi- 
date for President, and stands squarely and flatly 
upon his letter recommending the Republicans of 
Ohio to give their united vote in favor of John 
Sherman for President. He believes that Mr. 
Sherman is the choice of a large majority of the 
party in the State, and that the highest political 
wisdom, and best interests of the Republicans 
will be advanced by sending a unanimous delega- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. .3 y 

tion from Ohio In his favor. We do not make 
this statement because we needed any assurance 
that General Garfield was the firm and devoted 
friend of Mr. Sherman, or that he had changed his 
views of the propriety and fitness of Mr. Sher- 
man's nomination, but as so many statements 
have been made and telegraphic specials printed, 
calculated to mislead the public, we desire to put 
the whole question at rest by an authoritative 
statement. 

"General Garfield will continue to give Secre- 
tary Sherman his sincere, earnest and hearty sup- 
port, and will be personally gratified if all his 
friends and those who are Influenced by his wishes 
or opinions, would aid in securing for Mr. Sher- 
man a united deleoration from the State of Ohio." 

In the convention all that was said about him 
was when Grier, the Pennsylvania delegate, on 
the second ballot, got up and said, "I nominate 
and vote for James A. Garfield," an announce- 
ment perfectly in keeping with the character of the 
m.an for whom It was made. This was all until 
Wisconsin broke for him and the tide set In that 
landed him in the victor's seat. A day or two 
after the great event, an Intimate friend of the 
nominee related how it happened. "It was mani- 
fest from the start," said he, "that Garfield was a 
favorite with a large majority of them. It was 
also noticed that leading visitors at the convention 
were talklnof In that direction 

29 



488 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



"Four days previous to the great upheaval. 
Judge Hoar, one of the best informed men in the 
country, and who had large personal acquaintance 
among the delegates, remarked: * If the delegates 
were walled up separately and allowed no commu- 
nication with each other, following out the custom 
at the Vatican In electing a pope, voting a secret 
ballot. General Garfield would receive two-thirds 
of the votes of the delegates present.' The 
friends of the several candidates, of which there 
properly were three, seemed to lead out each 
with the firm conviction that by a long trial there 
would occur a break among the others. It be- 
came apparent that the contest would be one 
simply of endurance. The forces were under a 
remarkable discipline, a wave of a hand from Mr. 
Conkling or the other leaders being enough to 
subside any one. Even Logan was in this way 
motioned down by a wave of the hand of the 
Duke of New York. 

"As Grant was in the lead, it was apparent 
tliat his friends could not consistently break and 
go to any other candidate. It was clear after the 
second day that Mr. Blaine and Mr. Sherman's 
chances were hopeless. The friends of both, how- 
ever, you know, remained firm, hoping that each 
other would give way. 

" It was evident from confidential expressions 
by many delegates that Mr. Garfield was really 
tlie first choice of more than half of the delegates, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. j^gg 

including many Grant men. He had placed him- 
self in the front squarely against the unit rule. 
Blaine, Washburne and other anti-Grant men 
came to Garfield's friends hourly and said, 'Why 
don't you Ohio men take up Garfield ? We will 
vote for him.' In every instance they were met 
with the reply, * We have come to urge the claims 
of John Sherman for the nomination. We be- 
lieve him a strong candidate.' The Blaine men 
said: 'Why ask us to turn to Sherman ? We are 
more than three times your number. You, who 
believing with us that it would be unwise to nom- 
inate General Grant, should unite with us and 
nominate Mr. Blaine.' 

"The Sherman men counseled amone them- 
selves and concluded to hold out still loneer. FI- 
nally, on the day preceding the final break, the Wis- 
consin delegates came to the Ohio men :n a state 
of excitement and determination, and said : ' If you 
Ohio delegates will not bring out General Gar- 
field, we shall !' Some of the Ohio people were 
anxious to do this, but, under the circumstances, 
simply replied: 'Garfield is a great favorite in 
Ohio, and nothing would please us more than to 
vote for him, but as we came here to urge the 
nomination of Mr. Sherman, we shall use all hon- 
orable means to secure that end.' 

" At one or two ballots on the followincr morn- 

-ing it became plain that something was about to 

occur, and the convention had reached the begin- 



AgQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

ning of the end. The Blaine forces felt that they 
had gone as far as the most ardent supporters of 
Mr. Blaine could ask. All parties were anxious 
to go home. Wisconsin's response, * fourteen votes 
for James A. Garfield,' caused a ripple of surprise 
and joy to sweep over the faces of the delegates, 
and the cheers from the gallery demonstrated Gar- 
field's popularity in that vast audience. When the 
roll of States was called, a sudden stillness settled 
over the audience, and as the State of Indiana was 
called. General Harrison stepped upon the bench 
and in a clear, ringing voice, said : ' Twenty-nine 
votes for James A. Garfield.' Iowa was called, 
and another voice rang out : ' Twenty-two votes 
for General Garfield.' 

"The crowd then gathered around General 
Garfield and attempted to get him up to speak, 
but the general sat perfectly composed, and sim- 
ply replied : * No, no, gentlemen ; this is no theat- 
rical performance,' and their efforts were unavail- 
ing. The scene that followed has already been 
described.' 

"As the convention took a recess previous to 
nominating the Vice-President, a great crowd 
gathered at the outer door, and it was with the 
utmost difficulty that General Garfield gained a 
carriage. An incident occurring there is worthy 
of publication. As Garfield entered the carriage, 
in company with Governor Foster, the crowd 
surged around in a state of intense enthusiasm, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^qj 

and shouted : ' Take off die horses ; we will pull 
the carriage.' The driver, who at the time was 
not aware whom he was carrying, whipped up to 
get away from the men, who had already com- 
menced to unfasten the harness. He cleared the 
space several feet, but was overhauled again, and 
the dazed driver, now thoroughly frightened, ap- 
plied his whip with renewed energy, and clearing 
the crowd, pushed for the Palmer House. 

" General Garfield was unfeignedly surprised at 
the turn affairs had taken in the convention, and 
his countenance bore a grave and thoughtful ex- 
pression. He made but few remarks relative to 
the causes leading to his nomination, and I know 
positively that he would listen to no overtures 
from the delegates who so heartily placed him in 
nomination. He has not recovered from his sur- 
prise yet." 

It was indeed a surprise, coming, as it did, so 
entirely unsought. During the first minutes after 
the result, and while yet the general was busy 
shaking hands with the hundreds around him, he 
turned to a correspondent of the Cleveland Herald, 
and said : " I wish you would say that this Is no 
act of mine. I wish you would say that I have 
done everything and omitted nothing to secure 
Secretary Sherman's nomination. I want it plainly 
understood that I have not soucfht this nomination, 
and have protested against the use of my name. 
If Senator Hoar had permitted, I would liave for- 



iQ2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

bidden anybody to vote for me. But he took me 
off my feet before I had said what I intended. I 
am very sorry It has occurred, but If my position 
Is fully explained, a nomination, coming unsought 
and unexpected like this, will be the crowning 
gratification of my life." 

The news carried by wire from Chicago, sent a 
thrill of pleasure through the land. Everywhere 
the nomination was received with manifestations 
of great delight. Some forty telegrams reached 
the nominee before he left the convention hall, and 
before he slept that Tuesday night, more than a 
thousand more had winged their way to him. 
This came from the White House: 

ExECunvE Mansion, Washington y June 8ih, 
GenervVL James A. Garfield : 

You will receive no heartier congratulation to-day that* 
mine. This both for your own and your country's sake. 

R. B. Hayes. 

Every member of the Cabinet, Senator Blaine 
and hosts of other distinguished characters In the 
councils of the nation, telegraphed most candid 
con<7ratulatIons. 

The National House of Representatives, on the 
last day of the convention, was occupied with a 
discussion on the erection of a public building, 
and a motion to adjourn was made. During the 
callino- of the roll there was a ereat deal of excite- 
ment shown by the members over the convention 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^g-^ 

news, and when Garfield's name was called It was 
greeted with applause on both the Republican 
and Democratic sides of the chamber. The an • 
nouncement, which came In soon afterward, that 
Garfield had been nominated, was received with 
loud cheers and applause from the members, who 
had assembled in the lobby back of the Speaker's 
desk, and the confusion was so great that the roll- 
call was interrupted. Members gathered in 
groups and discussed the nomination of Garfield, 
which appeared to meet with almost universal ap- 
proval from the Republicans and which was con- 
ceded by the Democrats to be a strong one. The 
second call of Garfield's name was the signal for 
a burst of applause from the Republicans. The 
motion was finally carried and accordingly the 
House at half-past two adjourned. 

Cheers for Garfield were then given, while 
cries of '^Speech from Hawley," and " Hawley for 
vice-president" went up, but that gendeman did 
not respond. 

Mr. Robeson. — I move that General Hawley 
take the chair. Carried unanimously, amid loud 
, cheers. When Hawley took the chair the House 
presented a curious sight. Every chair was occu- 
pied, the seats of the absent members being filled 
by spectators, who, upon the adjournment, had 
crowded into the hall, while in the rear of the 
seats were groups of men evidently full of excite- 
ment. 



MQA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Mr. Hawley, on taking the chair, said: *'I beg 
leave to say that we occupy the floor with the kind 
consent of our friends on the right, who will have 
their opportunity by and by." [Laughter; cries 
of ** Speech! Speech!"] 

Mr. Hawley. — I have no speech to make. The 
nomination made at Chicago is Its own speech, for 
every Republican of this House, and our personal 
good-will goes with our old friend and associate. 
General Garfield. [Applause.] I have no doubt, 
from what I have seen and heard, that this event 
— this consummation — is in the very highest de- 
gree satisfactory to every Republican here, what- 
ever may have been his personal preference. 
[Applause.] We have been warmly divided in 
the past ; we will be much more warmly united in 
the future. [Loud applause.] I think one result 
will be — I am supposing that there are no Demo- 
crats here — to compel an excellent nomination on 
the other side, so that the country we all love will 
be certain of a good President for the next four 
years, personally, whatever his political opinions 
may be. [Loud applause. In which the Democrats 
joined.] 

Mr. Robeson was then loudly called for, and 
that gentleman responding, said: *'As members 
of the American Congress — " 

K Democrat. — Both sides ? 

]\Ir. Robeson, contlnuinr^. — Both sides — I think 
we have a right to congratulate the whole country 



JAMES A, GARFIELD, ^^r 

that a man we all know to be a man of charactef 
and capacity beyond impeachment has been nomi- 
nated by one of the great political parties for the 
highest office in the gift of the people. [Ap- 
plause.] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I speak in 
acknowledgment on behalf of the House of Rep- 
resentatives that one of our number, conspicuous 
before the people on account of his services on 
this floor, has been selected as the standard-bearer 
of the great political party to which I belong. 
That is a sentiment which affects neither the poli- 
tics nor the feelings of anybody, and I ask every- 
body within the reach of my voice to join me in 
giving three cheers for the candidate selected from 
our body as the candidate of a great party. [The 
Republicans rose and gave the three cheers with 
a will, but the Democrats, though joining in the 
cheering, retained their seats.] I move, Mr. 
Chairman, that a committee be appointed, and I 
suggest as its chairman the oldest member of the 
House — ^Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania — to send 
by telegraph our congratulations to our fellow 
Congressman on his nomination. [Applause.] 

Cries then went up for ''Kelley," and Chairman 
Hawley stated that Mr. Kelley would have occu- 
pied the chair, but that he had not been present. 

Wr. Kelley. — I have been in that chair but once, 
though I have been here nineteen years, and then 
I felt so like a fool that I never got into it again. 
[Laughter.] I thank the gentleman from New 



496 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Jersey (Robeson) and his associates on this floor 
for having delegated to me the chairmanship of 
the committee to which has been confided so 
grateful a duty. I beg leave to inform the chair- 
man and the House that, taking advantage of cir- 
cumstances, I slipped out when Garfield was at 
2^lZ and sent the following telegram : "Accept 
congratulations and pledge of earnest support." 
[Applause.] I rejoice most heartily in this nom- 
ination. General Garfield is a man of rare force 
of character, of wide attainments, of great simpli- 
city, and a man who adheres as firmly as a true 
party man ever did to his personal convictions, 
and our friends on the other side, in the dejection 
which now overcomes them, while a bad nomina- 
tion for them is possible, will find satisfaction in 
knowing that they know the man to be one who 
will administer the government faithfully, fairly 
and patriotically after we shall have inaugurated 
him. [Applause.] 

The chair appointed Kelley, Robeson, Browne, 
Martin (N. C), Page, Richardson (N. Y.), and 
Henderson (Illinois) as the committee to send a 
congratulatory telegram to Garfield. 

The happiness of the people was everywhere 
echoed by the press. The New York Tribune 
said: 

" With its best judgment the Tribune approves, 
with its heartiest enthusiasm the Tribime applauds 
the work of the Chicago Convention. With 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. .gy 

whatever power it possesses it will commend that 
work to the people, and labor unceasingly for a 
triumphant ratification at the polls." 

The staunch old Boston Advertiser, represent- 
ing the best element of the Republican party in 
New England, thus spoke for its constituents : 

"The Republican party has a candidate for Presi- 
dent of -whom It may be proud, a man of ability, 
experience and conscience. The nomination of 
General Garfield cannot be too heartily welcomed 
by all who have the good of the party and of the 
country at heart, not merely as the most satisfac- 
tory solution of the situation that was much to be 
regretted, but as one thoroughly good in itself. 
The nomination that has been made gives no such 
triumph to either of the supposed factions, as will 
excuse the other for manifesting the least hesita- 
tion in accepting the result. General Garfield is 
not a man to excite antagonism. He has not al- 
lied himself with any factional party, except as the 
supporter of the distinguished gendeman who was 
presented by his State. His name may well be 
the symbol of union and harmony which his can- 
didacy will secure. General Garfield is a politi- 
cian of the best sort — a man with conscience. 
He is under obligations to no corps of workers 
for his nomination'. He is bound by no pledge of 
any sort. He is tied to no clique. He will be a 
candidate of the whole Republican party, and 
President of the United States." 



498 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The New York Grant organ, the Times, took 
this position : 

"The Chicago Convention has followed sundry 
familiar precedents in failing to select the strong- 
est of the candidates presented to it. But from 
the second rank of available Republicans it has 
made a very excellent choice and one which has 
the great merit of uniting all sections of the party 
for a harmonious, aggressive and probably suc- 
cessful, campaign. James A. Garfield has been 
too long in public life to have escaped injurious 
allegations against his personal character and bit- 
ter attacks upon his political course, but he is 
strong in his freedom from intrigue to gain the 
nomination and in being able to accept It abso- 
lutely free from disreputable alliances or embar- 
rassing pledges. There are no bolters, scratchers 
or independents who bear the Republican name 
who cannot earnesdy work and honestly vote for 
General Garfield, and there is no thorough-going 
Republican who will not accept him as a fit repre- 
sentative of party principles, a faithful depository 
of the party trust. Whatever wounds may have 
been left by the nomination of the candidate for' 
President, in virtue of a combination between the 
elements opposed to General Grant, ought to be 
healed by the nomination for Vice-President of| 
that stalwart and steadfast Grant supporter, Ches- 
ter A. Arthur. The T'nncs rccop;nIzcs in him a man 
eminendy worthy of a wider spnere for his ability." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



499 



The Ciftcinnali Gazette voiced Ohio : 
'* This decision, akhough quickly executed, was 
the most rational and, in our view, the most suc- 
cessful conclusion of the situation. It was no 
blind Impulse, no recourse of reckless disappoint- 
ment, no effort of revenge, no blindfold saddling 
of a dark horse, no trifling with the fate of the 
party by hasty resentment, no leap in the dark, 
no straining of the allegiance of intelligent Repub- 
licans by jerking into the nomination a man un- 
known to fame ; it was the nomination of a man of 
national reputation, whose abilities have earned 
him the recognized place of leader of the House 
of Representatives ; of a man than whom no one 
could better harmonize all the contending factions 
in the convention ; a man who Is the peer of any, 
who Is himself a part of all that is good and glori- 
ous in the history of the Republican party, who 
deserves all the honor that belongs to the patriotic 
and successful soldier, who was a statesman thor- 
oughly identified with all civil institutions before 
he left a successful political career to serve his coun- 
try In war, and who has in his character and pub- 
lic services as much of those qualities which draw 
the intelligent enthusiasm of the people for the 
man they have chosen for leader as any man 
whom either of the several parties in the conven- 
tion could have named. Therefore do we hail the 
nomination as a great deliverance and as a regen- 
erating triumph for the Republican party." 



500 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



From the Chicago Times came this outburst: 

" In the language of the politicians, the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Garfield is a strong one, an uncom- 
monly strong one. It is one that brings together 
and unites all the lately hostile factions of the 
party and removes all the bitterness engendered 
by the fierce contest among rival aspirants that 
must have had effect on the result had the nomina- 
tion fallen to any one of them. It preordains the 
electoral decision in Ohio and makes Indiana de- 
batable ground, even with the strongest man the ^ 
opposite party could present. It satisfies the 
hard-money sentiment at the East, for Mr. Gar- 
field is a supporter of an honest money system, 
no less positive and uncompromising than Gen- 
eral Grant. Moreover, his election most probably 
would continue Mr. Sherman at the head of the 
Treasur)^ a consideration of much Importance to 
commercial and business interests. Those who 
imaeine that Mr. Garfield is a candidate to be 
easily defeated will find that they are under a 
serious delusion. His nomination is a much 
stronger one than that of Grant, or Blaine, or 
Sherman would have been. It is doubtful, indeed, 
if the convention could have named a more avail- 
able man." 

TJie Tribimc, a strong Blaine paper, answered 
for the country in this way: 

" From one end of the nation to the other, from 
distant Oregon to Texas, from Maine to Arizona, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cqi 

lightning has Informed the country of the nomina- 
tion yesterday of General James A. Garfield, as the 
Republican candidate for the Presidency. Never 
was a nomination made which has been received 
by friend and foe w^ith such evidence of hearty re- 
spect, admiration and confidence. The applause 
is universal. Even the Democratic House of 
Representatives suspended its business that it 
might congratulate the country upon the nomina- 
tion of the distinguished leader of the Republi- 
cans. James Abraham Garfield is, In the popular 
mind, one of the foremost statesmen of the na- 
tion. He is comparatively a young man, but in 
his service he commands the confidence and ad- 
miration of his countrymen of all parties. His 
ability, his thorough study and his long practical 
experience In political matters gives an assurance 
to the country that he will carry to the Presiden- 
tial office a mind superior, because of Its natural 
qualifications and training, to any that has pre- 
ceded him for many years. He will be a Presi- 
dent worthy in every sense to fill the office 
in a way that the country will like to see It filled — 
with ability, learning, experience and Integrity. 
That General Garfield will be elected we have no 

' question. He is a candidate worthy of election, 
and will command not only every Republican vote 
In the country, but the support of tens of thou- 
sands of non-partisans who want to see a Presi- 
dent combining intellectual ability with learning, 

.experience and ripe statesmanship." 



502 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



In the other centres of the poHtical and social 
life of the land, the same flattering reception was 
accorded the ticket. Many distinguished men .1 
spoke of it heartily, commending the statesman ' 
at its head. We have not, unfortunately, space to 
print what was said. The nominee's old com- 
mander, General Rosecrans, remarked on hearing . 
the news: "I consider General Garfield head and 
shoulders above any of the men named before the 
convention, and far superior to any of the politi-; 
cal managers upon the floor. He is a man with] 
broad views, has always been a consistent Repub-' 
lican, and has a clean record. I cannot believe, 
that James A. Garfield was ever guilty of a dis- 
honest act. As the campaign progresses, it will 
be found, if it is not now acknowledged, that Gar-J 
field is a hard man to beat." 

Mr. W. D. Ho wells, the editor of the Atlantic] 
Monthly, wrote us : " Among all the classes whom] 
his nomination has gratified, I think the literary 
class is first. We feel that all the good things 
which the Hayes' administration has done for- 
humanity and civilization will find their continu- 
ance and furtherance In his, and that he will per- 
petuate the order of perfect honesty, Intelligence 
and decency which Mr. Hayes has established in 
public life. I may tell you that Mr. Longfellow has 
repeatedly expressed his pleasure In Garfield's 
nomination. I had once the fortune to bring them 
together, and Mr. Longfellow was strongly Im- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cqx 

pressed with the fine and generous qualities, men- 
tal and moral, which every one recognizes In the 
candidate of our party." 

At Williams College the students went wild 
over the nomination, and within twenty-four hours 
after the result was announced, a Garfield club 
was organized, with a membership of three hun- 
dred. A ratification meetlnof was held In the even- 
ine, and the students sane, as a chorus to "March- 
inof throuo-h Georo^Ia," the followlncr.- 

*' Hurrah ! hurrah ! we'll shout for General G.I 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! a Williams man was he, • 

And so we'll sing the chorus from old Williams to the sea, 
And we'll cast a vote for General Garfield." 

We have sampled the enthusiasm of the coun- 
try for the nominee, as It appeared In various 
forms, and It will not seem mal a propos If we con- 
clude this chapter with a song that Garfield's nomi- 
nation called forth from Mr. W. O. Stoddard, In 
allusion to Garfield's remark at the battle of Mid- 
dle Creek : 

" In one hot fight that Garfield won, 
The loyal-souled commander 
Sent back a word among his men 
That stirred up all their dander. 

•' He was not quite so fast to cuss 
And swear around as some be. 
And all he said was, ' Come on boys ! 
We'll give 'em Hail Columby 1' 

" He led, they followed, spreading wide 
Among the rebels routed, 
From rank to rank, in liberal gift, 
The self-same thing he shouted. 
30 



504 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP 

" Year after year, a leader still, 
In camp, and field, and fonim, 
His feet beside his colors tread 
As when the bullets tore 'em, 

*• Year after year upon his lips, 
Through every contest ringing, 
The men who follow hear, as when 
The shells were o'er him singing. 

•* The words that harsh to many an eaj^ 
But bugle-sweet to some be : 
For peace or war a charging-cry, 
* Boys, give 'em Hail Columby 1' ** 




JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



505 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



A TOUR OF TRIUMPH. 



THE great result achieved, the nominee 
placed before the countr}^, the nation 
beofan to demonstrate Its satisfaction at 
the selection. From the hall of the convention 
the tide of cono^ratulatlon followed General Gar- 
field to his hotel. It had been announced that he 
would lea^ve Chicago for home at five o'clock P. M., 
and General Butterworth was assigned the duty of 
providing a procession to accompany him to the 
station. Wisconsin, the first State to break for 
him, volunteered cheerfully, and the thousands of 
Ohioans in town were no less ready. A band 
was provided, and ever)^thing was prepared, when 
the general decided to stay until morning. In 
order to avoid the press of congratulations, he 
engaged parlors on another corridor, the knowl- 
edge of which was confined to a few. The Wis- 
consin delegates, however, became apprised of It, 
and soon a throno- hundreds stronof was marchino- 
through the rooms for the purpose of shaking 
hands with the distinguished man who was the 
centre of all interest. 

Amonor die callers was a tall, somewhat Intoxi- 



5o6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



cated Ohioan, who, not content with a shake of 
the general's hand, threw himself upon the neck | 
of the astonished candidate as though he had \ 
found his long-lost brother. "I do it, general, 
because I love you so. I can't help It," he re- 
peated several times before he relinquished his 
close embrace. "The old Forty-second Ohio Is 
having things her own way. A'Int she ?" he ex- 
claimed enthusiastically, making a movement 
toward repeating the embrace. The general de- 
clined with dignity. One of the Ohio men came 
up wearing the red badge, which had already 
been struck off, bearing the words : " For Presi- 
dent, James A. Garfield." The wearer called the 
attention of the owner of the name. " That re- 
minds me of a saying of Holmes," the general 
said. " He wrote that three things require age — 
wine, meerschaum pipes and poetry. That badge 
might be added to the list. It's too new yet. I ■ 
can't realize It." When asked If he would re- 
spond to the demands that were already coming 
In for a speech, he said, " There Is not power i 
enough In Chicago to draw a speech out of me 
to-day." 

In the evening, after the second place on the 
ticket had been filled, in deference to the wishes 
of many delegates, the general held a reception. 
A magnificent stand of flowers was upon the 
table, and beside this the nominee stood for an 
hour. The stream of conorratulatlons was Inces- 

»3 



JAMES A. GARFTELB, cq^ 

sant — many ladies In elaborate evening toilette 
adding brilliancy to the event, and vieing with the 
men in the fervor of their declarations of satis- 
faction. In accepting the congratulations, the 
general bore himself with quiet dignity, seldom 
extending his replies beyond the hope that the 
nomination might prove acceptable to the Repub- 
lican party and the country. Later a serenade 
was tendered him, for which he merely bowed his 
thanks. 

Near midnight, Senator Hoar, at the head of 
the committee appointed to notify General Gar- 
field, appeared at the Grand Pacific, and notifying 
the general of his nomination, received the follow- 
ing reply : 

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I assure. you 
that the information you have officially given to 
me brings the sense of very grave responsibility, 
and especially so in view of the fact that I was a 
member of your body, a fact that could not have 
existed with propriety had I had the slightest ex- 
pectation that my name would be connected with 
the nomination for the ofhce. I have felt, with 
you, great solicitude concerning the situation of 
our party during the struggle ; but, believing that 
you are correct in assuring m^e that substantial 
unity has been reached in the conclusion, it gives 
me a gratification far greater than any personal 
pleasure your announcement can bring. 

" I accept the trust committed to my hands. As 



5o8 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



to the work of our party, and as to the character 
of the campaign to be entered upon, I will take 
an early occasion to reply more fully than I can 
properly do to-night. 

" I thank you for the assurances of confidence 
and esteem you have presented to me, and hope 
we shall see our future as promising as are Indi- 
cations to-night." 

The next morning, General Garfield started for 
home. From the hotel to the station It was a con- 
stant ovation. He left for Cleveland In a special car, 
accompanied by a number of intimate personal 
friends, among whom were Governor Charles Fos- 
ter, of Ohio ; S. T. Everett, President of the Second 
National Bank of Cleveland; General Joseph Bar- 
rett, an old military friend of General Garfield, he 
having been chief of artillery In the armies of Rose- 
crans and Thomas ; Colonel D. G. Swain, Judge 
Advocate of the United States Army, form^erly 
of the Forty-second Ohio Volunteers (Garfield's 
regiment) ; Lieutenant-Colonel L. A. Sheldon, 
Mayor W. H. Williams and Captain Charles T. 
Henry, ail of whom were also officers of Garfield's 
regiment. At Laporte, Indiana, the first stopping 
place of any consequence, many hundreds of peo- 
ple, with a brass band, had collected to salute him 1 
as he passed. Governor Foster introduced him, 
and he was received with deafening cheers. At 
South Bend, at Elkhart, at Goshen, at Kendal- 
vllle, at Waterloo and at Buder, the scenes were 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c \ j 

repeated, the theme — honor to Garfield — being 
ever the same. Crossing into Ohio, at Edgerton 
the greetings broke out afresh. When he reached 
Cleveland, an immense demonstration awaited his 
arrival, and the whole city was alive with a glad 
enthusiasm. Among the first of his callers there 
was the Hon. Henry W. Payne. 

Just before he left for Chicago he promised to 
deliver an address at the commencement exer- 
cises of Hiram College. The morning after his 
arrival in Cleveland he journeyed quietly to the 
little village of Hiram, the modest little town 
where he had been a bell-ringer, and a student, 
and a college president. Here he met his wife, 
for the first time since the acquirement of his latest 
and greatest honor, and at the very house where 
their acquaintance began. It was a touching 
meeting ; his wife, his children, the students and 
old friends gathered about him. Baring his head, 
the great statesman said : 

"Fellows-citizens, Old Neighbors and Friends 
OF Many Years : It has always given me pleasure 
to come back here and look upon these faces. It 
has always given me new courage and new friends, 
for it has brought back a large share of that rich- 
ness which belongs to those things out of which 
come the joys of life. 

"While sitting here this afternoon, watching 
your faces and listening to the very interesting 
address which has just been delivered, it has oc- 



512 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



curred to me that the least thing you have, that 
all men have enough of, Is perhaps the thing that 
you care for the least, and that Is your leisure — 
the leisure you have to think ; the leisure you 
have to be let alone ; the leisure you have to 
throw the plummet into your mind, and sound the 
depth and dive for things below; the leisure you 
have to walk about the towers yourself, and find 
how strong they are or how w^eak they are, to de- 
termine what needs building up ; how to work 
and how to know all that shall make you the 
final beings you are to be. Oh, these hours of 
bulldlnof ! 

"If the Superior Being of the universe would 
look down upon the world to find the most Inter- 
esting object. It w^ould be the unfinished, unformed 
character of the young man or young woman. 
Those behind me have probably In the main set- 
tled this question. Those who have passed Into 
middle manhood and middle womanhood are 
about what they shall always be, and there is but 
little left of Interest, as their characters are all 
developed. 

"But to your young and your yet unformed 
natures, no man knows tlie possibilities that lie 
before you in your hearts and intellects; and, 
while you are working out the possibilities with 
that splendid leisure that you need, you are to be 
most envied. I congratulate you on your leisure. 
I commend you to treat it as your gold, as your 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, c i f 

wealth, as your treasure, out of which you can 
draw all possible treasures that can be laid down 
when you have your natures unfolded and devel- 
oped In the possibilities of the future. 

"This place is too full of memories for me to 
trust myself to speak upon, and I will not. But 
I draw again to-day, as I have for a quarter of a 
century, life, evidence of strength, confidence and 
affection from the people who gather In this place. 
I thank you for the permission to see you and 
meet you and greet you as I have done to-day." 

After a few days of rest at his winter home, 
General Garfield journeyed on to Washington, and 
ever}^whcre along the route he was received with 
enthusiasm. The niofht after he arrived he was 
serenaded at his hotel, and the response to the 
cheers which his presence evoked from the crowd, 
was in these words: 

"Fellow-citizens: While I have looked upon 
this great array, I believe I have gotten a new 
idea of the majesty of the American people 
When I reflect that wherever you find sovereign 
power every reverent heart on this earth bows 
before It, and v/hen I remember that here for a 
hundred years we have denied the sovereignty of 
any man, and in place of it we have asserted the 
sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before me 
so vast a concourse that it is easy for me to 
imagine that the rest of the American people are, 
gathered here to-night, and if they were all here. 



5i6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



every man would stand uncovered, all In unsan- 
daled feet in presence of the majesty of the only 
sovereign power in this Government under Al- 
mighty God. [Cheers.] And, therefore, to this 
great audience I pay the respectful homage that 
in part belongs to the sovereignty of the people. 
I thank you for this great and glorious demonstra- 
tion. I am not, for one moment, misled Into be- 
lieving that it refers to so poor a thing as any one 
of our number. I know it means your reverence 
for your Government, your reverence for its laws, 
your reverence for Its institutions, and your com- 
pliment to one who Is placed for a moment in 
relations to you of peculiar importance. For all 
these reasons I thank you. I cannot at this time 
utter a word on the subject of general politics. I 
would not mar the cordiality of this welcome, to 
which to some extent all are gathered, by any 
reference except to the present moment and its 
significance ; but I wish to say that a large portion 
of this assemblage to-night are my comrades, late 
of the war for the Union. For them I can speak 
with entire propriety, and can say that these very 
streets heard the measured tread of your dis- 
ciplined feet, years ago, when the imperiled Re- 
public needed your hands and your hearts to save 
it, and you came back with your numbers deci- 
mated ; but those you left behind were immortal 
and glorified heroes forever; and those you 
brought back came, carrying under tattered ban- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



517 



ners and in bronze hands the ark of the covenant 
of your Republic in safety out of the bloody bap- 
tism of the war [cheers], and you brought it in 
safety to be saved forever by your valor and the 
wisdom of your brethren who were at home, and 
by this you were again added to the great civil 
army of the Republic. I greet you, comrades and 
fellow-soldiers, and the great body of distinguished 
citizens who are gathered here to-night, who are 
the strong stay and support of the business, of the 
prosperity, of the peace, of the civic ardor and 
glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your 
welcome to-ni^ht. It was said in a welcome to 
one who came to England to be a part of her 
glory — and all the nation spoke when it was said : 

" * Nonnans and Saxons and Danes are we, 
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.' 

"And we say to-night, of all nations, of all the 
people, soldiers and civilians, there is one name 
that v\^elds us all into one. It is the name of 
American citizen, under the union and under the 
glory of the flag that led us to victory and to 
peace. [Applause.] For this magnificent wel- 
come I thank you with all there is in my heart." 

On the nigfht following- he was tendered a 
grand banquet, and the day after he returned to 
Mentor for rest. 

Not for long, however, as on July 3d he was 
present at the dedication of- the Soldiers' Monu- 



cjg LIFE AND PUB Lie CAREER OF 

ment at Painesvllle, where he delivered the follow- 
ing magnificent address : 

" Fellow-citizens : I cannot fail to respond on 
such an occasion in sight of such a monument to 
such a cause, sustained by such men. [Applause 
and cheers.] While I have listened to what my 
friend has said, two questions have been sweep- 
ing through my heart. One was, ' What does the 
monument mean?' and the other, 'What will the 
monument teach ?' Let me try and ask you for a 
moment, to help me answer what does the monu- 
ment mean. Oh ! the monument means a world 
of memories, a world of deeds, and a world of 
tears, and a world of glories. You know, thous- 
ands know, what it is to offer up your life to the 
countr)', and that is no small thing, as every 
soldier knows. Let me put the question to you : 
For a moment suppose your country in the aw- 
fully embodied form of majestic law, should stand 
above you and say: 4 want your life. Come up 
here on the platform and offer it.' How many 
would walk up before that majestic presence and 
say, ' Here I am, take this life and use it for your 
great needs.' [Applause.] And yet almost two mil- 
lions of men made that answer [applause], and a 
monument stands yonder to commemorate their 
answer. That is one of its meanings. But, my 
friends, let me try you a litde further. To give 
up life is much, for it is to give up wife, and home, 
and child, and ambition. But let me test you this 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5 1 q 

way further. Suppose this awfully majestic form 
should call out to you, and say, ' I ask you to give 
up health and drag yourself, not dead, but half 
alive, through a miserable existence for long 
years, until you perish and die in your crippled 
and hopeless condition. I ask you to volunteer 
to do that,' and it calls for a higher reach of 
patriotism and self-sacrifice, but hundreds of 
thousands of you soldiers did that. That is what 
the monument means also. But let me ask you 
to go one step further. Suppose your countr>' 
should say, ' Come^ here, on this platform, and in 
my name, and for my sake, consent to be idiots. 
[Voice — ' Hear hear.'] Consent that your very 
brain and intellect shall be broken down into hope- 
less idiocy for my sake.' How many could be 
found to make that venture? And yet there are 
thousands, and that with their eyes wide open to 
the horrible consequences, obeyed that call. 

"And let me tell how one hundred thou- 
sand of our soldiers we're prisoners of war, and 
to many of them when death was stalking near, 
when famine was climbing up into their hearts, 
and idiocy was threatening all that was left of 
their intellects, the gates of their prison stood 
' open every day, if they would quit, desert their flag 
and enlist under the flag of the enemy, and out of 
one hundred and eighty thousand not two per cent, 
ever received the liberation from death, starvation 
and all that might comxe to them; but they took 



C20 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

all these horrors and all these sufferings In pre- 
ference to going back upon the flag of their coun- 
try and the glor}^ of Its truth. [Applause.] Great 
God ! was ever such measure of patriotism reached 
by any man on this earth before? [Applause.] 
That is what your monument means. By the 
subtle chemistry that no man knows, all the blood 
that was shed by our brethren, all the lives that 
were devoted, all the grief that was felt, at last 
crystallized itself into granite rendered immortal, 
the great truth for which they died [applause], 
and it stands there to-day, and that is what your 
monument means. 

"Now, what does it teach? What will it teach? 
Why, I remember the story of one of the old con- 
querors of Greece, who, when he had traveled in 
his boyhood over the battle-fields where Miltiades 
had won victories and set up trophies, returning 
he said: 'These trophies of Miltiades will never 
let me sleep.' Why, something had taught him 
from the chiseled stone a lesson that he could never 
forget, and, fellow-citizens, that silent sentinel, that 
crowned granite column will look down upon the 
boys that will walk these streets for generations 
to come, and will not let them sleep when their 
country calls them. [Applause.] More than the 
bugler on the field from his dead lips will go out 
a call that the children of Lake County will hear 
after the grave has covered us all and our Imme- 
diate children. That Is the teaching of your 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



521 



monument. That is Its lesson, and it is the lesson 
of endurance for what we believe, and it is the 
lesson of sacrifices for what we think — the lesson 
of heroism for what w^e mean to sustain — and that 
lesson cannot be lost to a people like this. It is 
not a lesson of revenge, it is not a lesson of 
wrath, it is the grand, sweet, broad lesson of the 
immortality of the truth that we hope will soon 
cover as with the grand Shekinah of light and 
glory all parts of this Republic, from the lakes 
to the gulf. [Applause.] I once entered a house 
in old Massachusetts where, over its doors, 
were two crossed swords. One was the sword 
carried by the grandfather of its owner on 
the field of Bunker Hill and the other was the 
sword carried by the English grandsire of the 
wife, on the same field and on the other" side 
of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, In 
the restored' harmony of domestic peace, lived 
a happy, and contented, and free family, under 
the light of our republican liberties. [Applause] 
I trust the time is not far distant when, under 
the crossed swords and the locked shields of 
Americans North and South, our people shall 
sleep in peace and rise in liberty, love and har- 
mony under the union of our flag of the Stars 
and Stripes." 

Once more he. comes before the country, his 
latest words, in the following sterling pronuncia- 
miento of Republican doctrines and belief, his 



C22 Z/i^^" AA^D PUBLIC CAREER OF 

letter of acceptance, which was given to the public 
July 1 2th. 

Mentor, Ohio, July loth, 1880. — Dear Sir: On 
the evening of the 8th of June last I had the 
honor to receive from you, in the presence of the 
committee of which you were chairman, the offi- 
cial announcement that the Repubhcan National 
Convention at Chicago had that day nominated 
me for their candidate for President of the United 
States. I accept the nomination with gratitude 
for the confidence it impHes and with a deep sense 
*of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially in- 
dorse the principles set forth in the platform 
adopted by the convention. On nearly all the 
subjects of which it treats my opinions are on 
record among the published proceedings of Con- 
gress, I venture, however, to make special mention 
of some of the principal topics which are likely to 
become subjects of discussion, without reviewing 
the controversies which have been settled during 
the last twenty years, and with no purpose or 
wish to revive the passions of the late war. It 
should be said that while Republicans fully recog- 
nize and v/ill strenuously defend all the rights 
retained by the people and all the rights reserved 
to the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine 
of State supremacy which so long crippled the 
functions of the National Government and at one 
time brought the Union very near to destruction. 
They insist that the United States is a nation, 
with ample power of self-preservation ; that its 
Constitution and laws made in pursuance thereof 
are the supreme law of the land ; that the right 
of tlie nation to determine tlie method by v/hlch 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



523 



its own legislature shall be created cannot be sur« 
rendered without abdicatinof one of the funda- 
mental powers of the Government; that the 
national laws relating to the election of represent- 
atives in Congress shall neither be violated nor 
evaded ; that every elector shall be permitted 
freely and without intimidation to cast his lawful 
ballot at such election and have it honestly 
counted, and that the potency of his vote shall not 
be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of any other 
person. The best thoughts and energies of our peo- 
ple should be directed to those great questions of 
national well-being in which we all have a com- 
mon interest. Such efforts will soonest restore 
perfect peace to those who were lately in arms 
against each other, for justice and good-will will 
outlast passion ; but it is certain that the 
wounds cannot be completely healed and the 
spirit of brotherhood cannot fully pervade the 
whole country until every one of our citizens, 
rich or poor, white or black, is secure In the free 
and equal enjoyment of every civil and political 
right guaranteed by the Constitution and the 
laws. Wherever the enjoyment of this right is 
not assured discontent w^ill prevail, Immigration 
Iwill cease, and the social and industrial forces will 
'continue to be disturbed by the migration of 
laborers and the consequent diminution of pros- 
perity. The National Government should exer- 
pise all its constitutional authority to put an end 
|;o these evils, for all the people and all the 
States are members of one bodv ; and no mem- 
ber can suffer without injury to all. 

The most serious evils which now afflict the 
South arise from the fact that there is not such 
31 

\ 



524 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



freedom and toleration of political opinion and ac- 
tion that the minority party can exercise an effec- 
tive and wholesome restraint upon the party in 
;power. Without such restraint party rule be- 
comes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity 
which is made possible in the South, by its great 
advantages of soil and climate, will never be real- 
ized until every voter can freely and safely support 
any party he pleases. Next in importance to 
freedom and justice is popular education, without 
which neither justice nor freedom can be perma- 
nently maintained. Its interests are intrusted to 
the States and the voluntary action of the people. 
Whatever help the nation can justly afford should 
be generously given to aid the States in support- 
ing common schools ; but it would be unjust to 
our people and dangerous to our institutions to 
apply any portion of the -revenues of the nation or 
of the States to the support of sectarian schools. 
The separation of the Church and the State in 
everything relating to taxation should be absolute. 
On the subject of national finances my views have 
been so frequendy and fully expressed that little is 
needed in the way of additional statement. The 
public debt is now so well secured, and the rate of 
annual interest has been so reduced by refunding, 
that rigid economy in expenditures and the faithful 
application of our surplus revenues to the payment 
of the principal of the debt, will gradually, but cer- 
tainly free the people from its burdens, and close 
with honor the financial chapter of the war. At 
the same time the Government can provide for all 
its ordinary expenditures, and discharge its sacred 
obligadons to the soldiers of the Union and to the' 
widows and orphans of those who fell in its de- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD C2^ 

fense. The resumption of specie payments, which 
the RepubHcan party so courageously and suc- 
cessfully accomplished, has removed from the field 
of controversy many questions that long and se- 
riously disturbed the credit of the Government 
and the business of the country. Our paper cur- 
rency is now as national as the flag, and resump- 
tion has not only made It everywhere equal to 
coin, but has brought Into use our store of gold 
and silver. The circulatinor medium Is more abun 
dant than ever before, and we need only to main- 
tain the equality of all our dollars to Insure to 
labor and capital a measure of value from the use 
of which no one can suffer loss. The great pros- 
perity which the country is now enjoying should 
not be endangered by any violent change or 
doubtful financial experiments. 

In reference to our custom laws, a policy should 
be pursued which will bring revenues to the Trea- 
sury, and will enable the labor and capital em- 
ployed In our great Industries to compete fairly In 
our own markets with the labor and capital of 
foreign producers. We legislate for the people 
of the United States, not for the whole world ; 
and it is our glory that the American laborer is 
more intelligent and better paid than his foreign 
competitor. Our country cannot be independent 
unless its people, with their abundant natural re- 
sources, possess the requisite skill at any time to 
clothe, arm and equip themselves for war, and in 
time of peace to produce all the necessary Imple- 
ments of labor. It was the manifest intention of 
the founders of the Government to provide for 
the common defense, not by standing armies 
alone, but by raising among the people a greater 



526 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill 
should powerfully contribute to the safety and 
glory of the nation. Fortunately for the interests 
of commerce there is no longer any formidable 
opposition to appropriations for the improvement 
of our harbors and great navigable rivers, pro- 
vided that the expenditures for that purpose are 
strictly limited to works of national importance. 
The Mississippi River, with its great tributaries, 
is of such vital importance to so many millions of 
people that the safety of its navigation requires \ 
exceptional consideration. In order to secure 
to the nation the control of all its waters, Presi- 
dent Jefferson negotiated the purchase of a vast 
territory, extending from the Gulf oi Mexico to 
the Pacific Ocean. The wisdom of Congress 
should be invoked to devise some plan by which 
that great river shall cease to be a terror to those 
who dwell upon its banks, and by Vv^iich its ship- j 
ping may safely carry the industrial products of 
twenty-five millions of people. 

The interests of agriculture, which is the basis 
of all our material prosperity, and in which seven- 
twelfths of our population are engaged, as well as 
the interests of manufactures and commerce, de-^ 
mand that the facilities for cheap transportation 
shall be increased by the use of all our great water 
courses. The material interests of this country, 
the traditions of its settlement and the sentiment 
of our people have led the Government to offer 
the widest hospitality to immigrants who seek our 
shores for new and happier homes, willing to share] 
the burdens as well as the benefits of our society,] 
and intending that their posterity shall become anj 
undlstinguishable part of our population. The! 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. r 2 7 

recent movement of the Chinese to our Pacific 
coast partakes but little of the qualities of such an 
immigration, either in its purposes or its result. It 
is too much like an importation to be welcomed 
without restriction ; too much like an invasion to 
be looked upon without solicitude. We cannot 
consent to allow any form of servile labor to be 
introduced among us under the guise of immigra- 
tion. Recognizing the gravity of this subject, the 
present administration, supported by Congress, 
has sent to China a commission of distinguished 
citizens for the purpose of securing such a modifi- 
cation of the existing treaty as will prevent the 
evils likely to arise from the present situation. It 
is confidently believed that these diplomatic nego- 
tiations will be successful without the loss of that 
commercial intercouse between the two great 
powers which promises a great increase of recip- 
rocal trade and the enlaro^ement of our markets. 
Should these efforts fail, it will be the duty of Con- 
gress to mitigate the evils already felt, and pre- 
vent their increase by such restrictions as, without 
violence or injustice, will place upon a sure foun- 
dation the peace of our communities and the free- 
dom and dignity of labor. 

The appointment of citizens to the various exe- 
cutive and judicial offices of the Government is, 
perhaps, the most difficult of all duties which the 
Constitution has imposed upon the Executive. 
The convention wisely demands that Congress 
shall co-operate with the Executive Department, in 
placing the civil service on a better basis. Expe- 
rience has proved that, with our frequent changes 
of administration, no system of reform can be 
made effective and permanent without the aid of 



Ik 



528 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF' 



legislation. Appointments to the military and 
naval service are so regulated by law and custom, 
as to leave but little ground of complaint. It 
may not be wise to make similar regulations by 
law for the civil service, but, without invading the 
authority or necessary discretion of the Executive, 
Congress should devise a method that will deter- 
mine the tenure of office, and greatly reduce the 
uncertainty which makes that service so uncertain 
and unsatisfactory. Without depriving any officer 
of his rights as a citizen, the Government should 
require him to discharge all his official duties- with 
intelligence, efficiency and faithfulness. To select 
wisely from our vast population those who are best 
fitted for the many offices to be filled, requires an 
acquaintance far beyond the range of any one 
man. The Executive should, therefore, seek and 
receive the information and assistance of those 
whose knowledge of the communities in which 
the duties are to be performed, best qualifies them 
to aid in making the wisest choice. The doctrines 
announced by the Chicago Convention are not the 
temporary devices of a party to attract votes and 
carry an election. They are deliberate convic- 
tions, resulting from a careful study of the spirit of 
our institutions, the events of our history and the 
best impulses of our people. In my judgment, 
these principles should control the legislation and 
administration of the Government. In any event, 
they will guide my conduct until experience points 
out a better way. If elected, it will be my purpose 
to enforce strict obedience to the Constitution and 
the laws, and 'o promote as best I may the interest 
and honor of the whole country, relying for sup- 
port upon the wisdom of Congress, the intelli- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. C2q 

gence and patriotism of the people and the favor 
of God. 

With great respect, I am very truly yours, 

J. A. Garfield. 

To Hon. George F. Hoar, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee. 

I will add here, to close this chapter, an 
analysis from the New York yournal of Phre- 
nology, of the President's mental characteristics : 

"James A. Garfield is a man of very stron_^ physical constitution, with 
broad shoulders, deep chest and a good nutritive system, which serve to 
sustain with ample vigor his uncommonly large brain ; standing fully six 
feet high, and weighing 22(3 pounds. The head, which is twenty-four 
inches in circumference, seems to be very long from front to rear, and 
then the length seems extreme from the centre of the ear to the root of 
the nose; it is also long from the opening of the ear backward. The 
whole back-head is large, and the social group amply indicated, but the 
reader will observe the extreme length anterior to the opening of the ears, 
especially across the lower part of the forehead, in which are located the 
organs of the perceptive intellect, those which gather and retain knowl- 
edge, and bring a man into quick sympathy with the external world, and 
also with the world of facts as developed in science and literature. 

"Perhaps there are not two men in a hundred thousand who are intel- 
ligent and educated, who will see as much and take into account so many 
of the principles involved in what he sees as the subject before us. Noth- 
ing escapes his attention ; he remembers things in their elements, their 
qualities and peculiarities, such as form, size and color. He would make 
an excellent judge of the size of articles, and also of their weight, by 
simple observation. He has a talent for natural science, especially chem- 
istry and natural philosophy. His memory, indicated by the fullness in 
the middle of the forehead, is enormously developed, aiding him in retain- 
ing vividly all the impressions that are worth recalling. 

" The superior portion of the forehead is developed more prominently 
in the analogical than in the logical. His chief intellectual force is in the 
power to elucidate and make subjects clear; hence he is able to teach to 
others whatever he knows himself. 

" He has the talent for reading character; hence he addresses himself 
to each individual according to his peculiar characteristics, and reaches 
results in the readiest and best way. His language is rather largely indi- 
cated ; he would be known more for specific compactness than for an or- 
nate and elaborate style, because he goes as directly as possible from 
the premises to the conclusion, and never seems to forget the point at 
issue. 



530 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



" The side-head is well developed in the region of Order, Constructive- 
ness, sense of the beautiful and of the grand. It is also strongly marked 
in the region of Combativeness and Destructiveness, which give force and 
zealous earnestness in the prosecution of that which he attempts to do. 
He is able to compel himself to be thorough, and to hold his mind and 
his efforts in the direction required until he has made himself master ot 
the subject. Industry is one of his strong traits, 

'* He is firm, positive, determined, and the middle of the top-head indi- 
cates strong religious tendency. We seldom see so large Veneration; he 
is devout, respectful toward whatever he thinks sacred, whether it relates to 
religion or to subordinate topics; he would reverence ancient places made 
memorable in story and song; he is respectful to the aged, polite to his 
equals, and especially generous and friendly to those who are his inferiors 
in age or culture. Thus, young men and even children have ready access 
to him by his invitation and permission. His strong social affection makes 
his face and his voice a standing invitation toward confidence, and he has 
great familiarity in his treatment of the young. 

"His method of studying subjects is instinctive; he considers all the 
facts, every condition, that will be brought into question, and combining 
these by means of his logical force, kis conclusions seem clear, are vigor- 
ously stated and influential. He has a strong physiognomy; that broad 
and high cheek-bone indicates vital power; that strong nose indicates de- 
termination, courage and positiveness; the fullness of the lips shows 
warmth of affection and of sympathy. 

" There are few men who are as well adapted to comprehend the length 
and depth and details of business, and hold their knowledge where it will 
be ready for use when it is required ; hence, as a lawyer or statesmen, he 
should be able to impart to people his knowledge effectively and ex- 
haustively whenever required. He is naturally qualified to be master of 
turbulent men, and to meet force by force, and tg stand hi§ ground in the 
midst of hardships, difficulties and opposition,'' 



j^J^ES A. GARFIELD. r^ ^ 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



THE MARCH TO VICTORY. 



GENERAL GARFIELD had hardly been 
nominated before the plans for the cam- 
paign that was intended to terminate in 
his election were formed. But they were not 
formed by any concerted effort of the whole party, 
not by any council of the leaders of each section, 
but only by those who intended that Garfield 
should win ; men who were in terrible earnest in 
selecting him, and no less determined for his elec- 
tion. 

The defeated stalwarts, the great, yet contempt- 
ible triumvirate, Conkling, Cameron and Logan, 
held back, sulked in their tents and heeded not 
the cry to arms. Senator Cameron, of Pennsyl- 
vania, who, in the February preceding, was 
elected Chairman of the Republican National 
Committee, remained away from its meetings, and 
refused to manage the campaign. The Hon. 
Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, was chosen In 
his stead. The Republican National Congres- 
sional Committee was orofanized with the Hon. 
Jay Hubbell, of Michigan, as Chairman, and the 
Hon, Edward McPherson as Secretary. State 



r -, o LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

00- 

committees were formed everywhere, and the 
campaign opened in form, July 20th, by the Hon. 
Carl Schurz, who, in a speech delivered at In- 
dianapolis, set the key-note of the Republican 
oratory by debarring the "bloody shirt" as a sub- 
ject of discussion, and confining all his efforts to 
a plea for the value of politic and economical 
questions as raised, defended and upheld by the 
Republican party. 

The speeches of others, greater and humbler, 
followed fast. The flood-gates were opened, and 
thence, till November, the tide of oratory rolled 
on unchecked. Mr. Blaine went earnestly to 
work, Mr. Sherman set just as good an example, 
and, with a will, the rank and file took up the 
march. Mr. Conkling was not, however, seen or 
heard. With an impertinence born of disgust andl 
defeat, he held aloof, while his friends urged on. 
General Garfield the necessity and propriety of| 
calling on him, and so enlisting his services. Thisj 
advice General Garfield wisely disregarded. While 
he saw the want of dignity and the loss of pres- 
tige, In his makinof the first advances to Senator 
Conkling, he by no means underestimated the 
value In the election of the State of New York, 
which was thought by a heedless few to be in the] 
power of Mr. Conkling to give or withhold. Mr.j 
Garfield, seizing the situation, boldly determined] 
to capture the State by going among Its voters 
and talkinof to them. The wisdom of this was! 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ ^ 



'> 



almost immediately apparent. A great Republican 
conference was called to meet in New York. 
Setting out from Mentor on August 3d, he jour- 
neyed to Manhattan by the way of Erie, Buffalo, 
Utica and Albany. His return was by way of 
Patterson, N. J., Port Jervis, Binghampton, Chau- 
tauqua and Cleveland, and the entire trip was a 
magnificent ovation of the people to the people's 
choice. Receptions were accorded him at every 
station ; thousands flocked to see him, and there 
were fire-works and cannons and bands and ban- 
ners, and everywhere a joyful populace. He was 
accompanied by Hon. Omer D. Conger, Gen. Ben. 
Harrison, John C; New, Godlove S. Orth, Major 
Swayne, Hon. Marshall Jewell and others. New 
York was reached on the 4th, at 6 P. M., and Gar- 
field at once drove to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
where rooms had been prepared for him. 

The Conference which he came on to attend 
was one of the most notable political gatherings 
ever held in the country. Men of high repute in 
politics from all parts attended. Not only poli- 
ticians, but such veteran journalists as Halstead 
of the Cincinnati Co7mnercial, Dawson of the Al- 
bany Eve7iing yournal, and others were present ; 
and from the South, among others, came Senator 
Lewis of Virginia, Thomas B. Keogh, Isaac J. 
Young and Judge Tourgee of North Carolina. 
From Indiana came John C. New, Ben Flarrison, 
Mr. Halloway, and others equally distinguished in 



r > 1 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the Reoubllcan ranks, with Senator Blaine ot 
Maine, Hon. W. E. Chandler of New Hampshire, 
and Senators Blair of New Hampshire, and Dawes 
of Massachusetts. Senator Cameron of Pennsyl- 
vania left his mountain retreat to put to rout the 
stories which had been started about his position 
in the canvass. Hon. John Sherman reached the 
city at noon with Stanley Matthews of Ohio. He 
came to add to its success by his counsel and co- 
operation in every way possible. Never before 
had so many gentleman distinguished in the annals 
of the country been brought together on a notice 
so informal. The invitation to and the presence in , 
response of these gentlemen proved beyond ques- > 
tion the earnestness of the Republican party. 
The Conference showed a determination to do 
everything possible to secure victory in November. 

I will not trouble the reader with a long list of 
names nor speeches. The Conference met on 
Friday the 5 th. Remarks were made by the 
prominent men present, and counsel and advice 
freely given. Senators Blaine, Logan and Came- 
ron each'^poke effectively and to the point. The 
day closed in fittingly by an imposing demon-J 
stration by the Boys in Blue. 

Never in New York was seen a greater, more 
magnificent eatherincr, than assembled in front of 
the Fifth Avenue Hotel that night. For hours the 
long procession filed past the hotel with deafening 
cheers, inspiriting music, and lighted by a light of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^ ^ 

fire-works that soared in the air. At length Gar- 
field appeared, when the cheers seemed one vast 
roar from thousands of exultant throats. After 
several minutes of this, there was a pause, and 
then the clear, resonant voice of the President was 
heard far over the crowd : 

'^ Comrades of the Boys in Blue and Fellow-Citizens of 
New York: I cannot look upon this great assemblage and 
these old veterans that have marched past us and listen to the 
welcome from our comrade who has just spoken (Speaker 
Sharpe) without remembering how great a thing it is to live 
in this Union, and be a part of it. This is New York, and 
yonder toward the battery, more than one hundred years ago, 
a young student of Columbia College was arguing the ideas 
o/ the American Revolution and American Union against the 
un-American loyalty to monarchy of his college president and 
professors. By and by he went into the patriot army, was 
placed in the staff of Washington to fight the battles of his 
country, and v/hile in camp, before he was twenty-one years 
old, upon a drum head, he wrote a letter which contained 
every germ of the Constitution of the United States. That 
student, soldier, statesman and great leader of thought, 
Alexander Hamilton of New York, made this Republic glo- 
rious by his thinking, and left his lasting impress upon New 
York, the foremost State of the Union. And here on this 
island, the scene of his early triumphs, we gather to-night^ 
soldiers of the new war, representing the same ideas of union 
and glory, and adding to the column of the monument that 
Hamilton, and Washington, and the heroes of the Revolution 
reared. 

" Gentlemen, ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, 
and you who fought in the war for the Union, fought for im- 
mortal ideas; and by their might you crowned our war with 
victory. But victory was worth nothing except for the fruits 



536 



LIFE AjYD public CAREER OF 



that were under it, in it and above it. We meet to-night as 
veterans and comrades to stand sacred guard around the 
truths for which we fought, and while we have life to meet 
and grasp the hands of a comrade, we will stand by the 
great truths of the war. And comrades, among the con- 
victions of that war which have sunk deep into our hearts, 
there are some that we can never forget. Think of the great 
elevating spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from 
all our farms, and shops, and stores, and schools, and towns, 
all over the Republic, and they went forth unknown to fame, 
but returned enrolled on the roster * of immortal heroes. 
They went in the spirit of those soldiers of Henry of Agiji- 
court, to whom he said : 

' Who this day sheds his blood with me, 
To-day shall be my brother. Were he ne'er so vile, 
This day shall gentle his condition.' 

''And it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart 
of every soldier who fought in it. And he shall be our 
brother for evermore. And this thing we will remember ; we 
will remember our allies who fought with us. Sooti after the 
great struggle began, we looked behind the army of white 
rebels, and saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil 
as slaves for our enemies ; and we found that the hearts of 
these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of liberty, 
and that they were our friends. We have seen white men 
betray the flag, but in all that long, dreary war we never saw 
a traitor in a black skin. Our prisoners escaping from the 
starvation of prisons, fleeing to our lines by the light of the 
North Star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and 
ask for bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no 
Union soldier was ever betrayed by a black man or woman. 
And now that we have made them free, so long as we live we 
will stand by these black allies. We will stand by them 
until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Consti- 
tution, shall shine with equal ray upon every man, black or 
white, throughout the Union. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^..^ 

'^ Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers ! in this there is all the 
beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we will stand for- 
ever. The great poet has said that in individual life we rise 
in stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things; and 
the Republic rises on the glorious achievements of its dead 
and loving heroes to a higher and nobler national life. We 
must stand guard over our post as soldiers, as patriots ; and 
over our country as the common heritage of us all. 

" I thank you, fellow-citizens, for this magnificent demonstra- 
tion. In so far as I represent, in my heart and life, the great 
<ioctrines for which you fought, I accept this demonstration 
as a tribute to my representative character. In the strength 
of your hands, in the fervor of your hearts, in the firmness of 
your faith, in all that betokens greatness of manhood and 
nobleness of character, the Republic finds its security and 
glory. I do not enter upon controverted questions. The 
time, the place, the situation forbid it. I respect the tradi- 
tions that require me to speak only of those themes which 
elevate us all. Again I thank you for the kindness and 
enthusiasm of your greeting." 

The address was Interrupted at every sentence 
by applause and cheers. General Arthur, Edwards 
Pierrepont, Ben Harrison, Anson G. McCook and 
others followed. The great demonstration was a 
complete success, and threw a good deal of 
enthusiasm into the Republican ranks. 

The campaign was hotly contested thereafter. 
As the time to autumn elections ei'ew shorter, the 
boasts of victory that always fill the air in days 
of political excitement, grew more and more ex- 
travagant. For a moment, it seemed as if those 
uttered by the Republicans were to be justified 
by results, for on September 7th the State of Ver- 



r^3 ^-^^-^ ^^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

mont went Republican by an old-time majority of 
almost 30,000. Six days later, the Republicans 
received a blow in the face — Maine, which had 
been securely counted on to give a Republican 
majority, was lost outright to the Democrats. At 
first this seemed disastrous, but it proved in the 
end to have been the one thinor needful, for it fur- 
nished just that desperation necessary to make 
certain the victory in Indiana and Ohio, on which 
States all eyes were now fastened. The battle 
waged fiercely, more fiercely than ever before in 
the annals of those States. 

By this time, Mr. Conkling had been compelled by 
circumstances to take part, and he now blazed forth, 
beginning on the 1 7th of September, at New York, 
in a series of speeches in which, as he afterwards 
boasted, he never once mentioned the name of the 
Republican candidate. His talk was confined en- 
tirely to praise of Grant and the glorification of 
the Republican party for what it did prior to 1876. 
There was nothing manly, honest or creditable In 
the part he took in the campaign. Up to this time 
a rather bad direction had been given to the Repub- 
lican efforts — the lead given by Mr. Schurz not hav- 
ing been followed. There was too much "bloody 
shirt." Seeing this, a party of Philadelphia protec- 
tionists, headed by Mr. Wharton Barker — who was 
the first man to nominate General Garfield, and 
who, more than any other, compassed his nomina- 
tion — went to Mentor and urged that the direction 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



539 



of the campaign be changed, and every power be 
centered on the tariff issue. This suggestion was 
adopted by General Garfield, and thereafter the 
whole burden of ^e fight fell upon Protection and 
Free Trade. On this issue the fight was maintained 
to the end. In Indiana it had a particularly salu- 
tary effect, and from the moment this change was 
decided on, the Republican prospects brightened. 
It is needless to recount here how the battle waeed. 

o 

The Republicans won and won handsomely in both 
the pivotal States, and thence the campaign. In spite 
of the disgraceful efforts of the Democrats to Im- 
pair the Republican prospects by means of a 
forged letter, was conducted by the Republicans 
with all the enthusiasm of certain victory, and by 
the Democrats with the spasmodic strength of a 
drowninor man. 

o 

To the struggles in Indiana and Ohio Immediately 
was added the fight in New York. Here, again, 
the Pennsylvanians came to the rescue, and Mr. 
Wharton Barker, by means of his connections 
and abilities, was able to make large inroads Into 
the Democratic stronofholds. Each side was 
over-heated, and but one party really and abso- 
lutely confident. There was marching and 
jcounter-marchlng, planning, manoeuvring, every 
Isort of sally and attack. So on to November 2d. 
Then both parties paused for breath before the 
final Issue. Among them all no one was cooler 
or more keenly alive to the hour than the great 



CAQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Republican himself. To a friend he wrote thus, 
with that calmness of contemplation of great 
events in which he is the most interested observer, 
that he so richly possesses : 

** Mentor, Ohio, November ist, 1880. 

*' Dear : The evening mail brings me your letter of the . 

31st, and I take a moment in the lull before the battle to say 
how greatly glad I am for all the earnest and effective things 
you have done for me. Whatever may be the issue of to- 
morrow, I shall carry with me through life most grateful 
memories of the enthusiastic and noble work my friends have 
done, and especially my college class-mates. The campaign 
has been fruitful to me in the discipline that comes from 
endurance and patience. I hope defeat will not sour me, nor 
success disturb the poise which I have sought to gain by the 
experiences of life. From this edge of the conflict I give you 
my hand and heart, as in all the other days of our friendship. 
As ever yours, ''J.A.Garfield." 

Happily for the country and the world, he had 
no " defeat to sour " him. The total vote on the 
morrow was 8,871,360. Of this General Garlield 
received 4,437,345, and his opponent 4,435,015. 
The country rang with rejoicing. The wild ex-- 
citement of election night everywhere was sue-- 
ceeded by the settled calm that attends on a; 
deed well done, the quiet, always grateful feel- 
ine of one who has avoided a dancrer after long 
exertion, and who may now lie down to peace 
and the pleasant dreams born of brilliant victory. 
For the country had won a President with an un- 
clouded title, a statesman, a citizen, and a man. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



54^ 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



THE INTERIM AND INAUGURATION. 



THE election satisfied the most sanguine 
hopes of the RepubUcans, and loud were 
the rejoicings of the victors. He who 
should have most rejoiced was not so much elated as 
the humblest of his supporters. He felt the great 
crown of responsibility that had been conferred 
upon him. The whirlwind of congratulations that 
blew upon Mentor bore a lesson in its fierce per- 
sistency — a lesson the President-elect was learn- 
ing by heart. 

On the day succeeding the election, the first of 

the many delegations that came to congratulate 

him put In an appearance at Mentor. Several 

hundred of the faculty and students of Oberlin 

i College called to offer their kind words and wishes^ 

I To them, President Garfield replied: 

" Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — This sponta- 
I neous visit is so much more agreeable than a prepared one. 
;It comes more directly from the heart of the people who par- 
iticipate, and I receive it as a greater compliment for that 
[reason. I do not wish to be unduly impressible or supersti- 
jtious, but, though we have outlived the days of augurs, I 
Ithink we have a right to hold some events as omens, and X 
greet this as a happy and auspicious omen, that the first gen- 
eral greeting since the event of yesterday is tendered to m.^ 



£-4^ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

by a venerable institution of learning. The thought has been 
abroad in the world a good deal, and with reason, that there 
is a divorce between scholarship and j^olitics. Oberlin, I 
believe, has never advocated that divorce, but there has been 
a sort of a cloistered scholarship in the United States that has 
stood aloof from active participation in public affairs, and I 
am glad to be greeted here to-day by the active, live 
scholarship of Ohio, and I know of no place where scholar- 
ship has touched upon the nerve centre of public intelligence so 
effectually as at Oberlin. For this reason I am specially 
grateful for this greeting from the faculty and students of 
Oberlin College and its venerable president. I thank you, 
ladies and gentlemen, for this visit. Whatever the signifi- 
cance of yesterday's event may be, it will be all the more 
significant for being immediately indorsed by the scholarship 
and culture of my State." 

This was the beeinnlnof of the storm, and for 
some weeks thereafter the President was busy re- 
ceiving and replying to his visitors. Having some 
business that required his attention in Washing- 
ton, he, on November 23d, in company with Mrs. 
Garfield and Hon. Amos Townsend, Congressman 
from the Cleveland District, started for the capi- 
tal. In accordance with the General's request, no 
public demonstration was attempted, and very lit- ' 
tie conversation of a political character permitted. 
He remained in Washington three days, and then 
returned to his hom.e. By this time the campaign 
torches, so lone aeo extinguished, had been for- 
gotten ; the campaign banners rent beyond repair. 
The tide of surmise and guesswork was in full 
/low upon the question of a Cabinet. Counting 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. -,, 

the cost of the election, It was pretty generally 
agreed that the Incoming President would endea- 
vor to harmonize all differences In the party ; that 
he would adopt a policy of reconciliation, and not, 
by allying himself with one Republican wing, deal 
tleath and destruction to the other. 

The months came and went rapidly. Lawnfield 
was soon a shrine for pilgrims, almost as Impor- 
tunate as those who cast their prayer carpets be • 
fore the gates of Mecca. Every train from Cleve- 
land, or the East, landed somebody at Mentor. 
Now It was a great politician ; now a lltde one ; 
now a delectation ; now a club of coneratulatln^^- 
citizens. A score of newspaper men hovered 
about Lawnfield like fireflies, and each carried an 
illuminating pencil. Another score used Cleve- 
land as a basis of operations, and made daily 
forays on Mentor. As the winter wore away and 
premonitions of the approach of spring became 
more noticeable, the stream of these pilgrims waxed 
greater and more virulent. The daily mail grew 
to an enormous size, and one private secretary 
was kept busy filing applications for office, which 
became so persistent as to be very annoyino-. All 
sorts of devices were adopted to reach the 
President's attention. Some of the more huno-rv 
ones appealed to the General's gende wife, or to 
his mother, in a vain hope that they would interest 
themselves in behalf of the applicants. All ap* 
plications were filed and not replied to. 



rAA LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

This led to much assertion of a certain sort, 
that the President-elect had promised this office 
to that man, this office to the other, and so on. 
It was claimed that he would make a stalwart 
Cabinet; that he would make an anti-stalwart 
Cabinet. It transpired finally, that Mr. Blaine was 
to be the Secretary of State. This position was 
offered him by Mr. Garfield when in Washington 
in November, and the selection was greeted 
with pleasure. Then came a special announce- 
ment in the New York Tribune, that those who 
fought the stalwarts in the Grant campaign would 
not be foreotten. Then it was said that Mr. 
James was booked for the position of Postmaster- 
General. Others were named for other places, 
and the interest was at fever-heat, because no other 
except Mr. Blaine's appointment was definitely 
decided in the President's mind until the day of 
his inaucfii ration. 

The writer visited the President-elect two days 
before he left Mentor for Washington to be in- 
augurated, and conversed with him on the ques- 
tion of the Cabinet. In the course of this con- 
versation, I learned from Mr. Garfield that he had 
decided upon nobody, out and out, save Mr. 
Blaine. It was, hov/ever, settled that Pennsylva- 
nia was to be recognized, either in the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Wharton Barker as Secretary of the 
Treasury or Interior, or by the appointment of 
Mr. Wayne McVeagh to the office of Attorney- 



yAMES A. GARFIELD. r^r 

General. Had this question been decided from 
the standpoint of stirKng abiUty, honesty in poUti- 
cal Hfe, or reward for poHtical service, the Presi- 
dent would have selected Mr. Wharton Barker, 
to whom first of all he owed his nomination and 
election. But considerations of popular applause 
and the weic^ht of Mr. Blaine's influence, which 
he was led to cast in favor of Mr. McVeaeh be- 
cause he believed Mr. Barker would be a "Garfield 
man" rather than a "Blaine man," determined the 
President to appoint Mr. McVeagh, an appoint- 
ment that has not been so satisfactory — at least to 
politicians — as they were led to believe it would be. 
But I am anticipating events. On the 5th of 
January, the Vice-President laid the following 
letter before the Senate of the United States : 

'* Mentor, Ohio, December 23d, 1880. 
*'Sir: — On the 13th and 14th days of January, A. D. 1880, 
the General Assembly of^tlie State of Ohio, pursuant to law, 
chose me to be a Senator in the Congress of the United 
States, for said State, for the term of six years, to begin on 
the 4th of March, A. D. 1881. Understanding that the law- 
ful evidence of that fact has been presented to the Senate and 
filed in its archives, I have the honor to inform the Senate 
that I have, by letter dated December 23d, 1880, and ad- 
dressed to the Governor and General Assembly of the State 
of Ohio, formally declined to accept the said appointment, 
and have renounced the same. I am, sir, very respectfully, 

''Your Obedient Servant, 

''J. A. GARFIELD. 

^^To the President 0/ the Senate of the United States ^ 



546 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



On the first day of March, the President-elect 
set out from Mentor for the capital. His family 
accompanied him and many of his personal friends. 
He traveled in a special train composed of Pull- 
man and private cars. That occupied by the 
President-elect was the private car of the man- 
ager of the Lake Erie and Western Road. His 
progress from his home to Washington was the 
occasion of a great outburst of affection on the 
part of his old neighbors and of popular regard 
along the route, which made the journey a marked 
contrast to that of his predecessor. It was not 
until he reached Harrisburg that Mr. Hayes 
learned definitely that he had been declared the 
President-elect. It recalled also, by contrast, the 
still more gloomy journey of the first Republican 
President to Washington, when the nation seemed 
going to pieces, and when it was necessary to 
change the proposed route to avoid assassins, who 
were lying in wait for the life of the President- 
elect. Mr. Garfield's speeches at the few stop- 
ping places along the road, were all that could be 
desired. They were frank, unpremeditated utter- 
ances of a man who feels both the honors and the 
responsibilities of his new place, and who responds 
in a candid way to the popular regard. This re- 
gard was spontaneously shown, and every one 
believed he was about to begin for the country a 
most brilliant administration, that should even 
astonish his friends. For his abilities are of that 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



547 



high order which adapt themselves easily to new 
situations. The man who turned from teachinof 
to soldiering and ffom soldiering to legislation, and 
made his mark in all these, was not likely to be 
at a loss when called as President, while still a 
young and teachable man, to duties less alien to his 
previous career than each of these was in Its turn. 

A committee of citizens met the President-elect 
on his arrival, and escorted him to the Riggs 
House, where he took up his residence until after 
the inauguration. 

This, as the Constitution duly provides, took 
place upon March 4th. The day opened unfavor- 
ably. Snow and ice had cove-red the broad 
avenues of the capital with slippery slush. The 
sky had a dull gray tinge, that seemed to preclude 
all smiles from the sun. At daybreak ever}^thing 
seemed Inauspicious. The flags over the many 
triumphal arches were wet and lifeless ; the 
prospect was exceedingly dull. Yet It was a 
great day. The President rose from his bed In 
the Executive Mansion for the last time as Chief 
Magistrate of the nation. On the morrow he 
,,would be only a private citizen, on his way to ob- 
livion. The President-elect awoke for the last 
time — for four years — as a freeman, responsible 
,1 for himself alone. It was just nine months since 
his nomination. Five months of these he had 
little to do, save speculate on the result. They 
were months of apprehension, of course, but 



548 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



months durinof which there was nothinof he could 
personally do to help his cause. The next four 
months his mind had had little rest ; and, as he is 
a great, conscientious, sensitive man, who never 
fails to appreciate the responsibilities before him, 
there could have been — in this gray morning — 
but little room for self-conQ^ratulation. He could 
not regard the office which he was that day to 
accept as a personal gift or trust, because for four 
years to come he was not to see a day on which 
he could say he was free from anxiety. No won- 
der he watched the light steal into the quiet 
streets with some doubts as to whether he had 
strenofth sufficient to meet the comincr dawn. 

The promise of the cold gray morning remained 
unfulfilled as the day wore on. The sun coming 
out soon cleared the streets of all the ice and 
snow they contained, and, a little later, dried them 
completely. They were thronged by an enor- 
mous crowd, far surpassing anything ever seen 
on similar occasions. The masses were patient 
and happy, and waited eagerly to see the proces- 
sion on Its way to the Capitol. 

At 10.15 the Presidential party came out 
of the White House, entered their carriages, 
and, preceded by the Cleveland Troop, moved 
through the west gate to Pennsylvania Avenue. 
The Presidential party, occupying two four-horse 
carriages, consisted of President Hayes, Presi- 
dent-elect Garfield, Vice-President-elect Arthur, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c^g 

and Senators Bayard, Pendleton and Anthony. 
Tr e Marine Band saluted them with " Hail to the 
Chief," and the booming of a gun started the first 
division of the great procession, which was the 
Presidential escort, on its way to the Capitol. 
This escort consisted of picked troops of United 
States infantry, cavalry, artillery and the Annapo- 
lis Cadets. The avenue was by this time one 
mass of humanity. From the Capitol to the 

i Treasury, looking from the balcony of the Li- 
brary, no grander sight of the sort was ever wit- 
nessed — one mile of street, two hundred feet 

I wide, crammed from house-line to house-line with 
variegated humanity. It was a continuous struggle 
of an hour to get through this mass of people from 
one of these points to the other. The gayly-decked 
banners, flags and national bunting flying from 
every house, the happy faces at the windows, the 
thousands of spectators installed in the banks of 
temporary seats made up a picturesque scene 
which will last long in the memory of those pres- 
ent. 

But it was only after the ceremonies at the 
Capitol had been concluded that the real proces- 
sion of the day began to move. After the Presi- 
dent had delivered his inaugural, his party entered 
their carriages, and the march up the avenue to 
the White House beo-an. General Sherman wa's 
in command, and the army which he commanded 
was composed of fully fifteen thousand men. The 



550 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



first division, under command of Major-General 
R. B. Ayres, United States Army, consisted of 
twelve companies of regular artillery, four com- 
panies of marines, a battalion of Cleveland troops, 
cavalry, the President and party In carriages, 
Knights Templar, four platoons; Grand Army of the 
Republic, eight platoons ; Boys in Blue, eight pla- 
toons ; Naval Cadets, two-horse batteries of reg- 
ulars, battalion Washington Light Infantry, four 
companies ; Colonel Moore, Company A, Fifth 
Battalion ; Second California Brigade, Hampton 
Cadets, Virginia ; Langston Guards, Norfolk, 
Va. ; Union Blues, Thomasville, Ga. ; Rome Star 
Guards, Georgia ; National Rifles, Washington, 
Captain Burnslde ; Signal Corps, United States 
Army, and the Ninth Regiment of New York. 
Next came the most interestine feature of the 
procession — the second division, under command 
of Major General Hartranft. It was made up 
entirely of Pennsylvania militia, and, as they 
marched up the avenue, they received most vigor- 
ous applause. Their step was firm, and It was 
the common remark that the reofulars must look 
to their laurels. They were In. the uniform of the 
United States Infantry, and carried knapsacks, 
canteens and rations for three days, living In 
camp. There seemed to be no end to the Penn- 
sylvanians ; but there is an end to everything, and 
the third division finally put in an appearance. 
This division, commanded by Major-General 



I 
1 



yAMES A. GARFIELD. c^qj' 

Thomas C Fletcher, consisted of the Grand 
Army oi the RepubHc, Boys In Blue and militia 
from New York, District of Columbia, New Jer- 
sey, Delaware, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, 
Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New 
Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and veter- 
ans from the District of Columbia and Pittsburg. 
The Harrlsburg City Grays, the Titusville Citi- 
zens' Corps and the Dickinson College and Penn- 
sylvania State College Cadets were also In this 
division. The fourth division, under the command 
of Major-General Charles H. Field, was composed 
of militia from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, 
South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. The 
fifth division, under the command of Colonel 
Robert Boyd, was composed exclusively of civic 
societies, and here marched the Philadelphia polit- 
ical clubs. 

Later, on the reviewing stand the scene was a 
grand one. Pennsylvania Avenue, In front of the 
White House and for several squares above and 
below it, when the head of the procession reached 
the Treasury Department, was literally packed 
with people, who had been waiting patiently an 
hour or longer for the return of President Garfield 
from the Capitol. When the carriages containing 
the Presidential party reached the eastern gate 
leading to the Executive Mansion, they were 
driven Inside, and the party soon afterwards ap- 
peared upon the grand stand, extending along 



552 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the sidewalk directly in front of the Mansion. 
President Garfield, accompanied by ex-Presi- 
dent Hayes, appeared, the former taking- a 
position in the front of the platform, elevated about 
twelve feet above the sidewalk, and in plain view 
of the surging thousands that still packed the 
avenue from railinor to railing on either side of the 
avenue, and who, upon his appearance, greeted 
him with prolonged cheering. Here the Presi- 
dential party stayed some time, watching the long 
and bright procession pass. 

The enormous crowd that lined the avenue and 
filled the space in front of the Capitol, might fidy 
be designated the people. Inside the Senate 
Chamber was gathered a far smaller audience, yet 
a more interesting one. Every avenue of approach 
was doubly guarded. It was hard work to obtain 
a passport and, having it, one found it quite as 
hard to work his way into the part of the Capitol 
whose privileges it commanded. Thus It came 
about that while the galleries were full they were 
not overcrowded, and that those who filled the seats 
constituted an audience of some distinction, while 
the floor of the Senate became for the short time 
between ii o'clock and 12.30 such a rendezvous 
of American political celebrities as is seldom seen. 
Among the first to take their places In the audi- 
ence were Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Garfield, General 
Garfield's mother, who, with a little Miss Garfield 
and a little Miss Hayes, all under the escort of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 






Major Swain, occupied the President's bench. 
Garfield's mother was dressed in the weeds of 
widowhood, which she has worn so long, and sat 
very quietly in a corner as if prayerfully waiting 
for the services to begin, and intensely anxious for 
the preacher to arrive. Close by her side and oc- 
casionally bending over to call the older lady's at- 
tention to some person or incident, was Mrs. 
Hayes, with her bland face beaming from a frame- 
work of a very white silk bonnet and very white 
silk bows, and wearing the celebrated black silk 
dress, while a sealskin sacque had fallen from her 
shoulders. Less noticeable was the wife of the 
President-elect, whose quiet tastes presented noth- 
ing In dress that would challenge the notice of a 
masculine eye; but a lady whispered in my ear 
that she wore a black silk dress and a velvet 
basque. The little girls — but that is enough of 
this millinery business. 

On the floor of the Senate one interestine 
group after another was formed in rapid succes- 
sion. The number of chairs had been Increased 
by two or three hundred for the accommodation 
'of the great men of the nation and the represen- 
tatives of foreign Governments who might grace 
the occasion by their presence. The Senators 
themselves were huddled together in a space as 
small as possible on the Republican side of the 
Chamber. Those going out and those coming 
into service with the stroke of the clock at noon, 



re A ^^^^ ^-^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

were sandwiched between those who are members 
with yet two or four years of grace. There was 
o-eneral inquiry for the new men, and as each 
came in the audience in whispers demanded his 
name, and mentally took his measure. Piatt of 
New York arrived early. After shaking hands 
with Conkling, he took a seat directly in front of 
his colleague, and had nothing to say to anybody. 
Hawley bustled in in a business-like way and set- 
tled down with an air of satisfaction. Mitchell of 
Pennsylvania followed so unobtrusively and also 
so timidly that his presence was not immediately 
observed. He shook hands with Hampton and 
Beck and sat down between them. Sewell, with 
nicely-poised eye-glasses and a professional air, 
mixed freely with a few acquaintances. Fair, 
Sawyer, Camden and Miller were last in the 
throne. Hale sat nervously, widi his old air of 
being anxious to take a hand in what was going 
on in the parliamentary line. Harrison chimed in 
In a languid way with Windom and others, and 
seemed to think the pending functions rather a 
bore. After the new Senators there were promi- 
nent men of the old set, whose every motion was 
watched by the galleries. Ex-Secretary Sherman 
was warmly welcomed by his old associates. 
There was a quartette of four national celebrities, 
Davis of Illinois, Conkling, Hamlin and Thurman, 
who were apparently cracking jokes, while waiting 
for the show to begin. Davis of West Virginia 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, c cr tr 

moved about with the grand air of a master of 
ceremonies, and Cameron was unusually lively in 
his movements, taking care to greet every new 
Senator as he came in. Thurman looked glum 
and Wallace* pensive. 

It was now dangerously near the hour of noon, 
•md the Presidential party were not in sight, so 
Doorkeeper Bassett took his staff, and in full view 
of all turned back the hands of the clock five 
minutes. It was enough. Before that time passed 
the doors were thrown open very wide, and there 
entered — First, Senators Bayard, Thurman and 
) Anthony ; second, President Hayes and Presldent- 
I elect Garfield ; third, the members of the Cabinet ; 
I and fourth, Adjutant-General Drum and Private- 
Secretary Rogers. The Senate, the Supreme 
Court, the Diplomatic Corps, and Generals Sheri- 
dan and Hancock arose as by one impulse, and 
remained standing until the President and Presi- 
dent-elect walked up the aisle arm-in-arm, and 
stood before the two great easy chairs, just beneath 
the clerk's desk and facing the door. Mr. Hayes 
was flushed to absolute redness. Mr. Garfield 
was as pale as death. Both were nervous, and 
they seemed glad to sink into their chairs, which * 
was the sio^nal for the reseatinof of the whole 

o o 

assemblage. Then, with a searching flash Mr. 
Garfield's eye sought his wife and mother in the 
gallery, and the latter, overcome with emotion, 
I buried her face in her hands and wept. The be 



556 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



lated hands of the clock had now reached the hour 
of 12, and all on the floor again rose as Vice- 
President-elect Arthur entered on the arm of 
Senator Pendleton. He was handsome, dignified, A 
perfectly self-possessed and dressed with con- " 
spicuous but faultless taste. Vice-President 
Wheeler introduced him, and he spoke his few 
words without notes. In a clear voice, and with 
no change except a tinge of pallor to betray 
agitation, he said: 

" Senators : I come as your presiding officer with genuine 
solicitude, remembering my inexperience in parliamentary 
proceedings. I cannot forget how important, intricate and 
often embarrassing are the duties of the Chair. On the 
threshold of our official association I invoke that courtesy 
and kindness with which you have been wont to aid your 
presiding officer. I shall need your constant encouragement 
and support, and I rely with confidence upon your lenient 
judgment of any errors into which I may fall. In return, be 
assured of my earnest purpose to administer your rules in a 
spirit of absolute fairness, to treat every Senator at all times 
with that courtesy and just consideration due to the represen- 
tatives of equal States, and to do my part, as assuredly each 
of you will do his, to maintain the order, decorum and dignity 
of the Senate. I trust that the official and personal relations ' 
upon which we now enter will be marked with mutual confi- 
dence and regard, and that all our obligations will be so 
fulfilled as to redound to our own honor, to the glory of our 
common country, and the prosperity of all its peeple. 
(Applause). I am now ready to take the oath of office pre- 
scribed by the Constitution," 4| 

There was a round of applause, and then Mr.^ 
Wheeler administered the oath of office, during 



M 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c c 7 

which profound silence reigned. Next Mr. Wheeler 
spoke a few farewell words, alluding to the good 
feeling that had always been shown toward him, 
and, returning his thanks, his last official act was 
performed in declaring the Senate of the Forty- 
sixth Congress adjourned sine die. The new 
Vice-President then took the gavel, the new 
Senators were sworn in by him, and the extra 
session of the Senate began in the usual way. 

By noon 10,000 people had gathered before the 
east front of the Capitol, to listen to President 
Garfield's inaugural, and to see him sworn in as 
the twenty-fourth President of our country. 

At 12.40 the doors of the rotunda were thrown 
open, and five policemen pushed the crowd 
assembled upon the upper steps aside. The 
stalwart figure of Fred. Douglass, Marshal of the 
District, next appeared, completely overshadowing 
Mr. McKenney, Clerk of the Supreme Court, who 
was by his side. Closely following them came 
the members of the Supreme Court, wearing their 
gowns and carrying hats in their hands, in spite of 
the nipping March air. Following the Court came 
Sergeant-at-Arms Bright of the Senate, arm-in-arm 
with Mr. Pendleton, recently chosen by his Demo- 
cratic associates to succeed Mr. Thurman as 
President pro tempore of the Senate. Senators 
Bayard and Anthony, two of the oldest members 
in the body in point of service, followed. After 
them came the President and his predecessor. A 



558 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



I 



loud cheer was given by the crowd as General 
Garfield appeared. Ex-Vice President Wheeler 
and Senator Ferry came next, and they were 
followed by Vice-President Arthur and Mr. Burch, 
Secretary of the Senate. Senators followed, and 
they were succeeded by members of the Diploma- 
tic Corps and representatives of the army and 
navy. General Garfield took a seat on the plat- 
form, Mr. Hayes on his right hand and Chief 
Justice Waite on the left. To the left of Mr. 
Hayes Sergeant-at-Arms Bright and Senator 
Pendleton occupied chairs. Immediately behind 
him sat Mr. Wheeler and Vice-President Arthur. 
Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Hayes and the President's 
mother were also seated on the platform behind 
the President. This interesting family group was 
made more interesting by the presence of Fanny 
Hayes and Mollie Garfield, two litde girls, who 
stood upon the platform behind the ladies. About 
ten minutes was then devoted to the photographer, 
and whd^ he had succeeded in securing the group 
for posterity, Mr. Garfield took his inaugural 
address from his pocket and read in a clear, strong 
voice as follows : tt 

*' Fellow-citizens: We stand to-day upon an eminence ^ 
which overlooks a hundred years of national life — a century 
crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty 
and law. Before continuing the onward march, let us pause 
on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew 
our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people 
have traveled. It is now three days mure than a hundred 



J 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ccq 

years since the adoption of the first written Constitution of 
the United States — the Articles of Confederation and Per- 
petual Union. The new Republic was thus beset with danger 
on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family 
of nations. The decisive battle of the War for Independence, 
whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated 
at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were 
struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but 
against the settled opinions of mankind ; for the world did 
not then believe that the supreme authority of government 
could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people 
themselves. We cannot overestimate the fervent love of 
liberty, the intelligent courage, and the saving common- 
sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of 
self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that 
the confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessity 
of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, 
and in its stead established a national union, founded directly 
upon the whole of the people, endowed with full powers of 
self-preservation and with ample authority for the accomplish- 
ment of other great objects. Under this Constitution bounda- 
ries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order 
i and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our 
people in all the better elements of national life has vindicated 
the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their de- 
scendants. Under the Constitution our people long ago 
made themselves safe against danger from without and secured 
for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. 
Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been added 
to the Union, with Constitutions and laws framed and en- 
forced by their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings 
of local self-government. The jurisdiction of their Constitu- 
tion now covers an area fifty times greater than that of the 
original thirteen States, and a population tv/enty times greater 
than that of 1780. 



c^Q LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

''the paramount duty of the executive. 

*'The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under 
the tremendous pressure of civil war. We, ourselves, are 
witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of 
that conflict purified and made stronger for all the beneficent 
purposes of good government. And now, at the close of this 
first century of growth, with the inspirations of its history in 
their hearts, our people have lately reviewed the condition of 
the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions 
of political parties, and have registered their will concerning 
the future administration of the Government. To interpret 
and to execute that will in aacordance with the Constitution 
is the paramount duty of the Executive. 

*'Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation 
is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ its best 
energies in developing the great possibilities of the future. 
Sacredly \ reserving whatever has been gained to liberty and 
good government during the century, our people are deter- 
mined to leave behind them all those bitter controversies 
concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and 
the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and de- 
lay the onward march. 

''The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no 
longer a subject of debate. That discussion which for half a 
century threatened the existence of the Union was closed at 
last in the high court of war, by a decree from which there is 
no appeal, that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance 
thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme law of the 
land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This 
decree does not disturb the anatomy of the States nor inter- 
fere with any of their necessary rights of local ; elf-govern- 
ment j but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy 
of the Union. The will of the nation, speaking with the 
voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has 
fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming 'liberty 
throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.' 



II 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c-^j 

" EMANCIPATION AND ENFRANCHISEMENT. 

" The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full 
rights of citizenship is the most important political change 
we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 
1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its benefi- 
cent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us 
from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has 
added immensely to the moral and individual forces of our 
people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from 
a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has sur- 
rendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more 
than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them 
a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspi- 
ration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor 
more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. 
The influence of this force will grow greater and bear rich fruit 
with the coming years. No doubt the great change has caused 
serious disturbances to our Southern communities. This is 
to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those 
who resisted the change should remember that under our in- 
stitutions there was no middle ground for the negro race be- 
tween slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no per- 
manent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Free- 
dom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the 
law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the 
pathway of any virtuous citizen. 

*'The emancipated race has already made remarkable pro- 
gress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a 
patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have ' followed 
the light as God gave them to see the light. ' They are rapidly 
laying the material foundations of self-support, widening the 
circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings 
that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They 
deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far 
as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the full 
and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws. 



562 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



** FREEDOM OF THE BALLOT MUST BE PRESERVED. 

'*The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, 
and a frank statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is 
alleged that in many communities negro citizens are practi- \ 
cally denied the freedom of the ballot. In so far as the truth 
of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many 
places honest local government is impossible if the mass of 
uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave 
allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only pallia- 
tion that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the bal- 
lot. Bad local government is certainly a great evil which 
ought to be prevented, but to violate the freedom and sanctity 
of the suffrage is more than am evil — it is a crime which, if 
persisted in, will destroy the Government itself. Suicide is 
not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to com- 
pass the death of a king, it should be counted no less a crime 
here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It 
has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the re- 
pose of nations. It should be said, with the utmost emphasis, 
that this question of suffrage will never give repose or safety 
to the nation until each State within its own jurisdiction 
makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanc- 
tions of the law. But the danger which arises from igno- 
rance in the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field far 
wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition 
of that race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the 
sources and fountains of power in every State. We have no 
standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought ' 
upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to 
corruption and fraud in the suffrage. The voters of the 
Union who make and unmake Constitutions, and ui>on whose 
will hangs the destinies of our Government, can transmit su- ' 
preme authority to no successor save the coming generation 
of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that 
generation comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance and 
corrupted by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain and 
remediless. hI 

m 



JAMES A. GARFIELD c(yj 

''A QUESTION OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE TO THE SOUTH. 

''The census has already sounded the alarm in tlie appall- 
ing figures which mark how dangerously high the tide of illit- 
eracy has risen among our voters and their children. To the 
South this question is of supreme importance. But the re- 
sponsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the 
South alone. The nation itself is responsible for the exten- 
sion of the suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in 
removing the illiteracy which it has added to the voting 
population. For the North and South alike there is but one 
remedy. All the constitutional power of the nation and of 
the States, and all the volunteer forces of the people should 
be summoned to meet this danger by the saving influence of 
universal education. It is the high privilege and sacred duty 
of those now living to educate their successors and fit them by 
intelligence and virtue for the inheritance which awaits them. 
In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten 
and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a 
new meaning in the Divine Oracle, which declares that 'A 
little child shall lead them,' for our little children will soon 
control the destinies of the Republic. My countrymen, we 
do not now differ in our judgment concerning the controver- 
sies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children 
will not be divided in their opinions concerning our contro- 
versies. They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' 
God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was over- 
thrown, and that both races were made equal before the law. 
We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot prevent the 
final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a 
truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable 
verdict? Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral 
and material well-being invite us and offer ample scope for 
the employment of our best powers. Let all our people, and 
leaving behind them the battle-fields of dead issues, move for- 
ward, and in the strength of liberty and the restored Union, 
win the grander victories of peace. 



cj^A ^^^^ ^^-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

''congress should preserve the public credit. 
**The prosperity which now prevails is without a par- 
allel in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to 
secure it, but they have not done all. The preservation of 
the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so 
successfully attained by the administration of my predecessors, 
has enabled our people to secure the blessings which the sea- 
sons brought. By the experience of commercial nations, in 
all ages, it has been found that gold and silver afford the only 
safe foundation for a monetary system. Confusion has re- 
cently been created by variations in the relative value of the two 
metals, but I confidently believe that arrangements can be made 
between the leading commercial nations which will secure the 
general use of both metals. Congress should provide that 
the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not 
disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of 
circulation. If possible, such an adjustment should be made 
that the purchasing power of every coined dollar will be ex- 
actly equal to its debt-paying power in all the markets of the 

world. 

"The chief duty of the National Government, in connection 
with the currency of the country, is to coin money and 
declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained 
whether or not Congress is authorized by the Constitution to 
make any form of paper money legal tender. The present 
issue of United States notes has been sustained by the 
necessities of war, but such paper should depend for its value 
and currency upon its convenience in use and its prompt 
redemption in coin at the will of the holder, and not upon 
its compulsory circulation. These notes are not money, but 
promises to pay money. If the holders demand it the 
promise should be kept. 

*'The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of 
interest should be accomplished without compelling the 
withdrawal of the national bank notes, and thus disturbing 
the business of the country. I venture to refer to the position 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. i-^:- 

I have occupied on financial questions during a long service 
in Congress, and to say that time and experience have 
strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these 
subjects. The finances of the Government shall suffer no 
detriment which it may be possible for my administration to 
prevent. 

'' OUR AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING INTERESTS. 



li 



The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from 
the Government than they have yet received. The farms of 
the United States afford homes and employment for more 
than one-half our people, and furnish much the largest part 
of all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for 
the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it 
should give to the tillers of the soil lights of practical science 
and experience. 

" Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially 
independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and 
profitable fields of employment. Their steady and healthy 
growth should still be maintained. Our facilities for trans- 
portation should be promoted by the continued improvement 
of our harbors and great interior waterways, and the increase 
of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the world's 
commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening a great 
sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canals or 
railways across the Isthmus which unites the two continents. 
Various plans to this end have been suggested, and will need 
consideration, but none of them have been sufficiently 
matured to warrant the United States in extending pecuniary 
aid. The subject, however, is one which will immediately 
engage the attention of the Government, with a view to a 
thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no 
narrow policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges in any 
commercial route, but, in the language of my predecessor, I 
believe it to be * the right ' and duty of the United States to 
assert and maintain such supervision and authority over any 



566 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



interoceanic canal across the Isthmus, that connects North 
and South Amercia, as will protect our national interests. 



n 



POLYGAMY SHOULD BE PROHIBITED. 



*' The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. 
Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to 
the legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General 
Government is responsible for any violation of the Constitu- 
tioti in any of them. It is, therefore, a reproach to the 
Government that in the most populous of the Territories the 
constitutional guarantee is not enjoined by the people, and the 
authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church 
not only offends the moral sense of mankind by sanctioning 
polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through 
the ordinary instrumentalities of law. In my judgment it is 
the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the 
conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every 
citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal 
practices, and especially of that class which destroy the 
family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any 
ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp, in the 
smallest degree, the functions and powers of the National 
Government. 

''the civil service. 

''The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory 
basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the service 
itself, for the protection of those who arc intrusted with the 
appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction of 
the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for 
place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue 
and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to fix the 
tenure of the minor offices of the several executive depart- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^67 

ments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall 
be made during terms for which incumbents have been ap- 
pointed. 

''the purpose of the administration. 

''FinaMy, acting always within the authority and limitations 
of the Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States 
nor the reserved rights of the people, it will be the purpose of 
my administration to maintain the authority of the nation, 
and in all places within its jurisdiction to enforce obedience 
to all the laws of the Union in the interests of the people ; to 
demand rigid economy in all the expenditures of the Govern- 
ment, and to require the honest and faithful service of all 
executive officers, remembering that the offices were created, 
not for the benefit of the incumbents or their supporters, but 
for the service for the Government. 

"an appeal for earnest support. 
*'And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great 
trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal for 
that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this Gove-rn- 
ment in fact, as it is in law, a Government of the people. I 
shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress 
and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and 
duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to 
promote the welfare of this great people and their govern- 
ment. I reverentially invoke the support and blessings of 
Almighty God." 

Before the address was read, the clouds had 
completely cleared away, and the sun shone 
upon the glistening bayonets and gay uniforms, 
and sparkled upon the snow beyond. The In- 
aup-ural address consumed half an hour In Its 
delivery, and was applauded frequently by that 



568 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



portion of the audience near enough to hear. 
The President was in good voice, and his de- 
hvery was never more forcible and eloquent. The 
rounded sentences fell with ease, and bore to the 
ear of every hearer a conviction of the speaker's 
earnestness, if not of his wisdom, of his apprecia- 
tion of the difficulties before him, and of his de- 
termination to surmount them successfully. As 
soon as the address was over, the oath of office 
was administered by the Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court, and the crowd dispersed to join the 
throngs down town, while the President, with mag- 
nificent tenderness, turned and kissed his mother. 
The day wound up with fire-works and a ball. 
The fire-works were of the most elaborate char- 
acter, and attracted thousands of spectators. 
Besides the State illuminated arches, a Pfood 
many private houses and public buildings were 
lit up. Commencing with a gorgeous and beau- 
tiful illumination of the south end of the Trea- 
sury Building, grounds and the Washington 
Monument, this was succeeded by continuous 
flights of rockets, parachutes, with changing-col- 
ored fires, bombshells, etc., forming great jewel- 
clouds in the heavens. The set pieces presented 
a magnificent tree, with golden foliage ; a superb 
sun, with coruscating radiators ; the national 
coat-of-arms, very brilliant ; a compliment to the 
army and navy, containing an emblem of each, 
with the letters "Army and Navy," around which 




External View of the White House. 




East Room of the White House. 



t 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c5q 

revolved the national ensign ; the grand cataract 
of Niagara, one of the most superb efforts of 
the pyrotechnic art, the whole ending with a de- 
vice, in which appeared life-like portraits of the 
President and Vice-President. The beauty of 
this picture was very great. As the portraits 
opened out in lines of silver fire, the whole back- 
ground presented one great mass of streams of 
colored fires of the most brilliant and varied hues, 
which, together with the springing of mines and 
exploding of shells, formed a spectacle of splendor. 
As the stars from the last shell disappeared, a 
magnificent bouquet, like a huge volcano, as- 
cended, filling the heavens with every gem known 
to the art. This terminated the best pyrotech- 
nical display ever seen in Washington. 

The ball was an equal success. The broad 
avenues leading to the building afforded easy 
access. From the outside the immense structure, 
with its hundreds of windows, through which 
the many-colored lights came streaming out, pre- 
sented a scene of unwonted brilliancy. Upon enter- 
ing, the most conspicuous decoration to attract 
the attention was the statue of America, placed di- 
rectly in the centre of the rotunda upon a lofty base, 
deeply banked in tropical plants, and holding in 
her left hand a shield and in her right a torch, 
from which a powerful electric light shed its bril- 
liancy down the four wings which diverge from 
the central nave at angles to each other. Cables 



ryo LIP^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

of everereens, relieved with rare flowers, stretched 
from the ceihng, and hung in mid air, while the 
numerous pillars, extending from the floor to the 
lofty ceiling, were banked with flowers and ever- 
greens, and adorned with shields bearing the 
heraldic emblems of the several States and Terri- 
tories, with flags, streamers and bunting twined 
about and pendant from them. Thousands of 
gas-jets illuminated the scene, and made it one of 
almost matchless beauty. At 9 o'clock, the hour 
at which the President was expected, it was esti- 
mated that between 3,000 and 4,000 people had 
entered the building. At 9.30 the Germania Or- 
chestra, of Philadelphia, of one hundred pieces, 
announced the entrance of the President by play- 
ing with fine effect the Inaugural March (com- 
posed for the occasion by John Philip Sousa). 
After being presented to the inaugural reception 
committee in a body, the President and invited 
guests moved in procession from the committee's 
rooms in the following order, to the place reserved 
for them in the hall : President Garfield, attended 
by J. W. Thompson, President of the Execu- 
tive Committee ; ex-President Hayes, with Hon. 
Samuel Shellabarger and Dr. Welling ; Mrs. Gar- 
field, wife of die President, attended by Colonel 
H. C. Corbin and Hon. A. G. Riddle ; Mrs. Gar- 
field, mother of the President, attended by Hon. 
\Vm. Lawrence and Mr. N. H. Willard ; Mrs. 
Hayes, attended by Hon. John B. Alley. After 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^ j I 

them came Vice-President Arthur, ex- Vice-Presi- 
dent Wheeler, General Sherman and staff. Gen- 
eral Hancock and staff, General Sheridan, Gen- 
eral Beale, Admiral Rodgers, Colonel Ainger, 
Chief Justice Waite and the Associate Justices of 
the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice and the 
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the 
District of Columbia, Chief Justice and Judges of 
the Court of Claims, and the Inaugural Reception 
Committee. Upon reaching the place designated, 
the President took position, and, for an hour or 
more, received with blended dignity and cordiality 
all who came forward to receive and exchange 
greetings. Among the first was General Han- 
cock, and the unaffected cordiality on the part of 
both was noticed. Shortly before eleven o'clock 
the President and his Immediate party ascended 
to the Presidential bakony, remaining interested 
witnesses of the brilliant scenes beneath for 
twenty minutes or more. A fev/ minutes after 
eleven o'clock the President with his wife and 
mother, retired, and, proceeding to the carriage In 
waitinof, were driven to the White House. Con- 
trary to general expectation, the President did not 
take part In the opening dance. The promenade 
concert continued until eleven o'clock. Then the 
dancing began, and, when the ball was at its height, 
the scene was one of unusual brilliancy. 



572 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE EARLY DAYS OF GARFIELD'S ADMINISTRATION. 

THE next day, on the Senate assembling 
in special session, the Vice-President 
promptly read a special message from 
the President announcing the Cabinet. It was 
composed as follows : 

Secretary of State : James G. Blaine. 
Secretary of the Treasury : William Windom. 
Secretary of the Interior : Samuel J. Kirkwood. 
Secretary of the Navy : William H. Hunt. 
Secretary of War : Robert T. Lincoln. 
Postmaster-General : Thomas L. James. 
Attorney-General : WaVne McVeagh. 

Of these. Secretary Blaine is the best known, 
and It IS hardly needful to say a word as to his 
career. He is fifty-one years old. Mr. Windom 
is three ye-ars older, and a native of Ohio, though a 
Senator from Minnesota. He is a lawyer by pro- 
fession. Mr. Lincoln, the son of the Immortal, 
likewise a lawyer, and is thirty-seven years of age. 
Mr. Hunt, the Naval Secretary, Is nearly sixty, 
and a native of Carolina. Mr. Kirkwood was 
born In 1S13, and, therefore. Is the senior of them 
all. He, too, Is a lawyer. Thomas L. James is 




Thomas L. James, 

POSTMASTER-GEN. 




Wayne MacVeagh, 

ATTY. -GENERAL. 






William Windom, 
sect. of the treasury. 



JAMES G. BLAINE, 

SECT. OF STATE. 



William M. Hunt, 

SECT. OF THE NAVY. 





ROBERT T. Lincoln, 

SECT. OF WAR. 



Samuel J. Kirkwood, 

SECT. OF THE INTERIOR. 



PRESIT)ENT GARFIELD'S CABINET. 



i 



j 



:>AMES A. GARFIELD,' ^ 



IZ 



just fifty, and has had no other profession than 
that of public Hfe. Wayne McVeagh is forty- 
eight, and a native of the State from which he was 
appointed. The Cabinet was received with 
lapplause, though It undoubtedly Is not so strong 
a Cabinet as that with which Mr. Hayes began 
his administration. It was, too, universally be- 
lieved that it was not constructed for four years' 
service, but that it would have to be materially 
changed before Mr. Garfield finished his first 
term. This belief has been strengthened per- 
ceptibly during the first months of the new 
administration, and it Is now probable that Mr. 
Wayne McVeagh will retire before long, when he 
will either be gratified in one of his pet ambitions, 
the English Mission, or retire to private life. 

The reasons for thinkinor that the Cabinet could 
not last out the President's first term were sue- 
gested by the political complexion of those Mr. 
Garfield had chosen for advisers. Mr. Blaine 
represented that force In politics with which 
Mr. Garfield was most in sympathy — an extreme 
stalwart, but an anti-Grant man. In so far as Grant 
was represented in the persons of his trainers, 
Messrs. Conkling, Cameron and Logan. Mr. 
James and Mr. Windom were offerings to Mr, 
Conkling ; Senator Logan was appeased in the 
person of Secretary Lincoln ; Don Cameron was 
defied in the selection of Wayne McVeagh ; 
McVeagh having been one of the Independents <H 



i-yj_ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Pennsylvania, It was supposed his appointment 
would gratify that portion of the Republican 
party In the Keystone State, a great mistake In 
supposition, as Mr. McVeagh has no political 
following whatever In his own State. This 
appointment was certainly unwise. Judge Hunt 
was the share of the South In the Cabinet, and 
Mr. KIrkwood was a tribute to the Banner State 
of the party. Mr. KIrkwood, however, Is mani- 
festly too many years behind the age to make a 
good, brilliant public officer, In a department where 
brilliancy Is sorely needed, combined with neither 
Western nor Eastern ideas, but with civilized 
ideas. There was also some reference to geo- 
graphical division In appointing Mr. Kirwood as 
there was to party lines. On the whole, however, 
the country was satisfied, and the Cabinet was 
confirmed by the Senate without a dissenting 
voice. 

Though the stalwart element was In the majority 
there were many who, in reading over the names 
of the Illustrious seven, foresaw a conflict in the 
near future, when those who had championed 
Grant would array themselves against the admin- 
istration. No one, Indeed, expected smooth 
sailing, and It was not very long before the squall 
came. 

On assuming the reins of government there 
were only two immediate problems presented to 
President Garfield that were surrounded with serl- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c ^ r 

ous difficulties. One was the satisfactory adjust- 
ment of the claims of the enormous army of office 
seekers, who had peopled the capital and invaded 
the White House, even to the President's private 
apartments. The other was the great and impor- 
tant question of what should be done with the 
maturing debt. For the adequate settlement of 
this question it was proposed to call an extra ses- 
sion of Coneress. But the President discovered, 
on investigation, that the bonds falling due during 
the summer could be redeemed without any legis- 
lation. After a good deal of consultation and in- 
vestigation, a plan was matured by Mr. Windom, 
on suggestions from the President, for the extend- 
ing of the bonds at a lower rate of interest — three 
and one-half per cent. The plan was acceptable 
in a high degree to the country, and the loans 
were paid when due by new bonds, issued at this 
lower rate, thereby saving the country many mil- 
lions of dollars. The first great problem was thus 
most satisfactorily disposed of 

The remaining problem was a far more serious, 
far more difficult one — the feeding of the army of 
placemen. The tremendous rush for appoint- 
ments, to pay for work done in the cause, had 
so grown during the last twelve years as to amount, 
when President Garfield assumed office, to almost 
a revolution. The President had in his gift about 
100,000 offices, for which there were about 500,000 
applicants. It was, therefore, necessary to offend 



576 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



400,000 men and their friends, or at least a million 
of people. To apportion out these 100,000 offices 
amounted, therefore, almost to a social revolu- 
tion; and the incurring the enmity of a million of 
men meant danger, great danger. It would pro- 
duce a diseased political atmosphere ; the atmos- 
phere of discontent, that at any moment might dis- 
charge some thunderbolt to do an Ineffaceable 

o 

national damage. 

With this before him, can the reader wonder 
that President Garfield began his appointments In 
peril ? His first struggle with political opponents 
was, as It had been predicted from the previous 
November it would be, with the Grant, or stalwart, 
faction of the party to which the President be- 
longed. On the 2 2d of March, Stewart L. Wood- 
ford was renominated for his old place of District 
Attorney for the Southern District of New York. 
On the same day several other nominations were 
made that were agreeable to Senator Conkling's 
feelings and desires. Tbe day following, William 
H. Robertson, of We-stchester, N. Y., a State 
Senator and President of the New York Senate, 
was appointed Collector of the Port of New York, 
In place of Edwin A. Merritt, transferred to the 
Consul Generalship of London. 

This was the spark that fired the waiting train. 
Mr. Robertson w^as the active oro^anlzer and leader 
of the bolt In the New York delegation to the 
convention that nominated Mr. Garfield. This 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



577 



o aicled ^j^gjjgj.^l^|y jj^ ^^ defeat of General 

rant, ^^^ placed Mr. Conkllna- in the lleht of a 

leader . 

powerless to manage his own State, a posi- 

, chat not only injured his prestige, but hurt his 
ity. Every one predicted an Immediate fight 
^ Jween the Senator from New York and the 
Tresldent. There seemed to be no help for it. 
Mr. Robertson's nomination was in the last de- 
gree distasteful to Mr. Conkling, as it dealt a 
fatal blow to his power in his own State, and 
wounded his personal pride. The nomination was 
reputed to be — falsely, I think — the work of Sec- 
retary Blaine. This was enough of itself to throw 
Mr. Conkling Into a rage, and he promptly worked 
himself Into one. 

Before speaking of the immediate results of the 
Robertson nomination, It will be necessary to go 
back a few months. General William Mahone, of 
Virginia, a champion of repudiation, had, during 
the winter, been bargained with by some of the 
stalwart Republicans, Including Senators Cameron 
and Conkling. It was agreed between them that 
General Mahone would, In the organization of the 
Senate, vote with the Republicans, In considera- 
tion of being allowed to name the sergeant-at- 
arms. It so happened that this little bargain, 
while it enabled the Republicans to organize the 
Senate Committees in favor of the Republicans, 
produced, from a variety of causes, a dead-lock, 
which at the outset was most fiercely maintained 



578 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER Ox? 



and v/hich either side was afraid to b.-f^ak. This 
prevented going into executive session, and so 
precluded, as long as the dead- lock lasted, cvny ac- 
tion upon the nominations sent to the Senate. 

With the opening days of April, it was tairly 
well understood at Washington, that the country 
was disgusted at its senators and their paltry' 
wrangling over the spoils of victory. The earnest- 
minded of them endeavored to break the dead- 
lock, which, by this time, had become exceedingly 
embarrassing to the President, owing to the in- 
convenience of having several hundred nomina- 
tions unconfirmed. After a good deal of talk, it 
was finally decided to hold a caucus of Republi- 
cans, and thereafter abandon the question of the 
re-organization of the Senate until all the nomina- 
tions of the President had been acted on. By 
this time the fight between the President and 
Mr. Conkling was an open one. It was per- 
fectly understood, that Mr. Robertson's confirma- 
tion would be opposed by every means in the 
power of the senior Senator from New York. 
An attempt was made to get the President to 
withdraw Mr. Robertson's name, but with no 
avail. Several meetings of the Republican cau- 
cus were held, and on May 2d, the caucus re- 
solved that executive sessions be held immediately 
— the Democrats being willing to go into executive 
session, but unwilling to organize the Senate in the 
interests of the Republicans, and adopting dilatory 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ryg 

motions to prevent It — and that contested nomi- 
nations lie over. A nomination was said to be 
contested if it was opposed by one Senator from 
the State from which the nominee was ap- 
pointed. The effect of this was, of course, to 
force Mr. Robertson's nomination to go over until 
December next, and to obtain for Mr. Conkling a 
victory over the President. With this result, Mr. 
Conkling was highly pleased, for he had succeeded 
In driving the senators into a support of him 
without making an open rupture between them 
and the President. Mr. Conkling, It seemed that 
night, had the best of It. 

The President, however, was not yet beaten. 
With magnificent pluck, that was hailed by the 
people everywhere with applause, he dealt Mr. 
Conkling a fatal blow. The next morning. May 
5th, all the nominations that were pleasing to Mr. 
Conkling were withdrawn. That of Judge 
Robertson was not. This defined the Issue 
sharply. It was very easy for the stalwart Sena- 
tors In the Senate to wish Mr. Conkling well, and 
to do what they could to aid him in calling the 
^President a liar — for Mr. Conkling maintained 
that the President lied to him — but it was quite 
another thing when they were obliged to call the 
President a liar in chorus with the offended Sena- 
tor. Senators Dawes, Ingalls, Allison, Jones, of 
Nevada, and others went to the White House and 
endeavored to persuade the President to with- 



58o 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



draw the nomination of Mr. Robertson. The 
interview was a long and stormy one. The Presi- 
dent expressed his opinion of the action of Mr. 
Conkling and of the RepubHcan caucus in carrying 
out what he termed Mr. " Conkling's plan " very 
freely. He absolutely refused to withdraw Mr. 
Robertson's nomination. The Senators returned, 
and reported the results of their conference to a 
number of Senators at the Capitol. On the day 
previous, the caucus had decided to consider all but 
contested nominations, and the President asked if 
certain nominations had been singled out for imme- 
diate confirmation and others for vexatious delay. 
He was told the result of the caucus decision. 
His reply is reported to have been, " Then I will 
take my own course. I am determined to l@arn 
who are my friends, and such as fail me will here- 
after require a letter of introduction." 

There could now be no doubt that Judge Rob- 
ertson would be confirmed and Mr. Conkling de- 
feated. Caucuses were called, and Conkling de- 
fended his cause as best he could. Senator Frye 
upheld -the administration. To Mr. Conkling it 
was perfectly clear that he was to be defeated. 
He cast about him for a new expedient. He found 
it. On May 1 6th, like a spoiled child, that cries 
because he cannot have own way, Mr. Conkling 
offered his resignation as a Senator from New 
York. His colleaorue and tool, Mr. Piatt, did 
likewise. This move was undoubtedly made be- 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. eg I 

cause Mr. Conklincr thoudit he would be re- 

o o 

elected prompdy by his own Legislature, and 
thus "vindicated" in his course by his own State. 
He had had no difficulty in having Mr. Piatt 
elected a short time before, and he of course 
could imagine nothing that would interfere with 
his own triumphant and prompt re-election. Mr. 
Robertson was confirmed on May i8th. 

The fight was now transferred to Albany, a city 
much more completely under Mr. Conkling's 
thumb than Washington. But even here his very 
first move was checkmated. By the law of New 
York an election to fill a vacancy, if the Legisla- 
ture is in session, must be held the seco7id Tues- 
day after the announcement to the Legislature of 
a vacancy. Mr. Conkling forwarded his resigna- 
tion to Governor Cornell on Monday the 1 5th, but 
the governor failed to announce it to the Senate 
before an adjournment was had, a^nd the election 
was, in consequence, postponed for a fortnight. 
This was a defeat. It gave the country time to 
speak, which it did, so unmistakably that when the 
balloting for successors to Messrs. Conkling and 
Piatt began on May 30th, Mr. Conkling was 
already beaten, and he found pitted against his 
claims 119 votes out of a total of 154. The de- 
feat was specific and actual. Mr. Conkling went 
in person to Albany, a«ccompanied by ex-Senator 
Piatt and Vice-President Arthur. All three of 
these gendemen labored with the desperation of 



582 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



a lost cause, and it was, in the case of the Vice- 
President, a disgusting exhibition of pot-house 
poHtics. Everything known, good or bad, was tried 
to secure the result; but Mr. Conkling was beaten. 
The people were against him and for the admin- 
istration. 

Were they justified in this? the reader will ask. 
Let us see. In organizing his administration. Presi- 
dent Garfield gave the strongest proof of his ear- 
nest purpose to unite and consolidate the Republi- 
can party. He was careful to recognize all its 
distinctive elements. He had been nominated by 
the triumph of one wing over the other ; but he 
had been elected by the hearty union of all, and 
in entering upon his trust he remembered his 
obligations to each. His success represented the 
united strength of the party, and the purpose ap- 
parent in the construction of his Cabinet and in 
his subsequent appointments was to perpetuate 
this o-ood feeline. The one thin^r which his first 
acts illustrated above all others was the determi- 
nation to treat all sections of the party with fair- 
ness, and call them all to his support. Such a 
policy was peculiarly in harmony with his public 
career and character. He had never been known 
as a factionist. Though long eminent as a Re- 
publican leader, he had not been conspicuous in 
the internal conflicts of the party. His shining 
plume had often been foremost in the charge 
a^rainst the common foe, but had never waved in 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cg^ 

the thick of Internecine strife. His Impulses and 
sympathies naturally identified him with the Inde- 
pendent and progressive elements of the party, 
but he had not vehemently antagonized the other 
side. In the battles which raeed between different 
wings he took no active part, but rather exerted 
his influence to moderate passion and compose 
dissensions. He had not participated In the strug- 
gle for patronage ; he did not represent a State 
which was divided between the contending- fac- 
tlons, and so was not compelled to join In the war ; 
and no prominent leader was more exempt from 
factious affiliations and prejudices or more free to 
do justice to all sides. This course was equally 
the natural outcome of his career and the manifest 
dictate of his position. 

But in the practical steps he had taken to exe- 
cute this purpose, he had been confronted with an 
onerous task. It was the Independent Republi- 
cans of New York and Pennsylvania that opened 
the way to his nomination. But for their action 
General Grant would have swept the field at 
Chicago, and General Garfield would not even 
have been mentioned as a candidate in the Con- 
vention. The President was Indebted to their 
attitude for his selection as the standard-bearer 
and he could not well be insensible to the obllea- 
tlon thus imposed upon him. More than that, as 
a Republican leader and as a member of the Con- 
vention, he sustained the principle of Independent 



584 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



district representation upon which they acted, and 
justified their course in disregarding the instruc- 
tion of the State Conventions and separating from 
the majority of the State delegations. Under such 
circumstances he could not permit them to be pro- 
scribed on that account. He knew and appreci- 
ated the great services of General Grant, ex-Sena- 
tor Conkling, and other aggressive leaders. He 
recognized Mr. Conkling not only as a master 
spirit of the Senate, but as the powerful Republi- 
can chief of New York, who was justly entitled to 
consideration. With his direct obligations to the 
independents for his nomination, and to the stal- 
warts for the fiery and successful energy which 
they imparted to the campaign, it would be strange 
if he did not feel a deep sense of gratitude to both, 
if he did not recognize the claims of each, and if 
he did not seek to unite them in a common sup- 
port of his administration. 

This Is precisely what he undertook to do. 
He nominated a number of conspicuous officers 
for New York because they were the friends of i 
Mr. Conkling. He nominated Judge Robertson 
for Collector because he was the foremost repre- 
sentative of the independents. Mr. Conkling ac-! 
cepted the twelve nominations made In his favor! 
with silence, as his right. When Judge Robertson 
was nominated he flew into a temper, denounced 
the President as a liar, and declared war to the 
knife. Was this just, fair or honest? 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. eg 5 

It was, however, to have been expected of him. 
For he has ever since his entry into pubHc life — 
in 1854 — won his greatest notoriety as a quarreler. 
As District Attorney in one of the rural commu- 
nities of New York, and as Mayor of the city oi 
Utica, he early disclosed his pragmatic disposition. 
Elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, he first 
engaged public attention by his dandified attire 
and coxcombical appearance, and then by the fa- 
cility with which he precipitated himself into petty 
quarrels with the members of his own party in 
the House of Representatives. Indeed, It maybe 
said that what first drew public attention to Mr. 
Conkling, was the terrific onslaught which he in- 
vited from Mr. James G. Blaine, then a Repre- 
sentative from Maine. It was absolutely true, as 
was then said of Mr. Conkling, that he was pomp- 
ous, insufferable in manner, and arrogant in his 
pretentions. He held himself to be too good for 
association with the common herd of Representa- 
tives and Senators. If there was anything to be 
asked of President Lincoln, which demanded a 
concert of action among the Representatives, Mr. 
fConkling invariably refused to join any embassy 
to the White House. He went in solitary state, 
scorning his companions and colleagues, and 
impressed his views upon the President in his own 
magniloquent fashion. As soon as he was strong 
enough to form a faction inside the Republican 
party, he organized a Conkling wing, the Repub- 



586 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



licans of New York being- thenceforth divided into 
two sections, one of which was composed of those 
who had been driven off in consequence of their 
refusal to perform the kotow to the new rising 
chief. 

He quarreled with Andy Johnson, and for a 
lonof time he could not gfet alono- with Grant 
Grant quarreled with Greeley and Fenton In or- 
der to satisfy him, and even afterwards, when he 
was getting everything, he asked the administra- 
tion was in a perpetual spasm to keep the peace 
with him. With Mr. Hayes he quarreled for four 
years. And Mr. Garfield had hardly made him- 
self at home before Mr. Conkling was making 
war upon him. 

Mr. Conkling, too, has constantly exhibited him- 
self to the American people as shaken by childish 
resentments, and spurred on by the most ignoble 
of passions. The god whom he adores is none 
other than himself, and, with unfounded ar- 
rogance, he has always posed as a great leader of 
his party. If he has ever done the Republican 
party any service, he has performed that service 
only as an incident of his own advancement. In 
1872, and In 1878, when he was a candidate for 
re-election to the Senate, h« threw himself Into the 
canvass with unbounded enthusiasm. In 1874 he 
was silent. In 1876, when he had been defeated 
for the Presidential nomination, he refused, for a 
long time, to take the field for the Republican 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cgy 

ticket, and only consented to speak once or twice, 
when the Republican chiefs had worked over him, 
adjuring him to do something for his own reputa- 
tion. After the defeat of Gen. Grant, at Chicago, 
Mr. Conkling hid himself in a pet ; and when, af- 
ter much premonitory trumpeting, he emerged 
from his ill-advised seclusion, he made a few 
speeches, of which he subsequently boasted — as 
he did of his addresses in 1876 — that the name 
of the Republican candidate for the Presidency 
could not be found in them, although one might 
search for it with a microscope. When the Senate 
was ao-itated over the Louisiana election matters, 
after the Presidential election of 1876, Mr. Conk- 
ling forsook his seat and took no part in die 
business before the Senate. When Congress was 
eno-ao-ed in a wrestle with the heresy of Green- 
backism, Mr. Conkling made no sign that he re- 
garded the contest with even a passing Interest. 
Except in matters personal to himself, he has stu- 
diously avoided every responsibility of the high 
office into which he has fought his way. It was 
indeed fit, that such a man should, at the last, fly 
out of his Senatorial chair, screaming with anger. 
The voting at Albany, as June wore on, rapidly 
degenerated into a dead-lock, and the country 
looked on at first amazed, interested, then 
apathetic, and finally, as the atmosphere became 
charged with the most vicious political corruption, 
disgusted. Bribery showed its hideous head. A 



588 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



professional lobbyist, Senator Sessions, gave 
;j^2,ooo for a vote to Assemblyman Bradley, a 
Conkling supporter, who was undoubtedly suffi- 
cient of a rascal to accept It. At Mr. Conkllng's 
direction, Vice-President Arthur personally 
carried on such a campaign of dirty lobbying as 
had never been seen before In the career of any 
public man of so high rank. The days passed 
rapidly. There was nothing creditable, nothing 
even honest that came with them. The Influence 
of the dlsorraceful struo^orle was felt as most 
corrupting all over the country. The spectacle 
of loose political morality, of looser political faith, 
of the basest passions used as factors in a fight 
to elect United States Senators, was an unpar- 
alleled one in the history of the Republican party 
and the United States. For it Mr. Conkling' 
was largely responsible. For when he found 
that he was beaten irrevocably, it was in hls^ 
power to have saved the nation a lasting dis-i 
grace, and ended the dispute that caused it, by! 
withdrawing his name. By his direction the 
fight went on. The lower classes of political 
beats and fanatics were infected with the decrene- 
racy of the fight. For many of that class gathered 
at Albany to do Mr. ConklIng*s bidding. June 
wore away, and still Mr. Conkling forced the 
fighting. July came, still the fight went on. Mr. 
Conkling said no word, made no sign that would ij 
have ended what had become a disc^race to New* 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. egg 

York, and an infamous stain on Mr. Conkling's 
career. His ringing words to J. H. Griswold, in 
1871 : "Every one knows that the fittest step 
toward remedy and reform is to nominate the best 
men in the Republican party, and elect them to 
the Legislature and to the executive offices of the 
State ; and yet men stand talking about Federal 
patronage, and differences among leaders, and 
personal feelings between individuals and the like. 
What have such things to do with the duty of this 
hour ? What do the people care about them ? 
What should they care ? Of what public conse- 
quence are the personal aims and objects and 
mishaps of individuals?" had been utterly forgotten. 
It was war to the knife and knife to the hilt. On 
July I St the relations of the factions had become 
strained to the last degree. And they so con- 
tinued until the month was three weeks gone» 
Mr. Conkling was permanently retired from 
political life — at least for some time by the elec- 
tion of Eldridge G. Lapham to succeed him. Mr. 
Warner Miller was elected to succeed Mr. Piatt ; 
and the long, brutal, disgraceful struggle came to 
"^an end, leaving a stain of infamy on those who 
precipitated It. 



590 



LIFE AND FUBLIC CAREEK oF 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



A TIME OF TRIAL. 



SATURDAY, July 2d, was as fair a day as 
usually comes with an American summer. 
ThouQfh the heat was somewhat noticeable 
in Washington, as in most cities, and the sun 
that gilded the head of Columbia on the dome 
of the Capitol, and stole softly into the awakening 
streets, was not unkindly in its fervor. At the 
White House that morninor the President was 
early astir. He had many matters that needed 
attention before he left the city, which he intended 
to do on an early train. His son Harry, who is 
quite a young athlete, came into his father's room 
and deftly turned a hand-spring across the bed. 

" Don't you wish you could do that ?" asked the 
boy. 

" Well, I think I can," replied the President, and 
with a moment's consideration he was on his 
hands and over the bed, in a fashion almost as 
neat as that of his son. 

At breakfast, the chat turned on the approach- 
ing trip to New England, that the President had 
planned with such pleasure. He was going to 
attend the commencement exercises of his Alma 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. £-g^ 

Mater, Williams College, Williamstown, Massa- 
chusetts. There had been arranged, in connection 
with this visit, a somewhat extended trip through 
Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in 
which he was to be accompanied by Mrs. Garfield 
and two or three of his children, several members 
of the Cabinet, with their wives, and other par- 
ticular friends. All the arrangements had been 
carefully completed, and every one of the party 
was anticipating a delightful ten days' jaunt. 
Those who were to start from Washington 
were to take a special car attached to the limited 
express train for New York at 9.30 o'clock that 
Saturday morning. They were to be joined at 
New York by Mrs. Garfield and two or three 
others of the President's family, who had been so- 
journing at Long Branch, where Mrs. Garfield 
had gone to recover from a severe attack of ma- 
larial fever. The President had looked forward 

^ to the trip with eagerness and delight, and in view 
of it had been In the best of spirits since his return 
from Lonof Branch. 

Breakfast was over. Secretary Blaine had come 
to accompany the President to the station. A few 
last words to Private Secretary Brown, a kiss to 
Harry, and the carriage, driven by coachman 
George, started rapidly along the magnificent 
avenue leading to the station of the Baltimore and 
Potom.ac Railroad, at Sixth and B Streets. The 

^ President was In the best of humor, and chatted 



C-Q2 ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

with many a light-hearted laugh. The few pedes^ 
trians who paid sufficient attention to the passing 
carriage to recognize the occupants, smilingly lifted 
their hats to the Executive. The station was soon 
reached and the carriage halted at the B Street 
entrance. This admits to the ladies' room, a pleas- 
ant, carpeted apartment, furnished with fixed 
wooden settees, so arranged as to leave a broad 
passage-way about twenty feet long, directly from 
the outer door to the opposite side of the room. 
Two doors opened from the side of the room 
opposite the outer door into the gentlemen's 
waiting-room, which is a large room. It Is neces- 
sary to pass around the ends of benches, either to 
the right or left, to reach one of these doors. By 
entering the general waiting-room and passing 
directly across it, you reach the guarded gates 
which lead to the train. As the carriage drove 
up to the door, the President said to Officer 
Kearney, who was on duty there: 

" How much time have I ?" 

" About ten minutes, sir," was the reply, where- 
upon the President and Secretary Blaine con- 
tinued their earnest conversation. After about 
five minutes they were warned that they must be 
moving. They alighted from the carriage and 
passed quietly through the door into the ladles' 
room. 

There was no crowd about. There were few 
ladles in the room, and but a few people in the 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



593 



general waiting-room beyond. There was nothing 
stirring, nothing of note, nothing to attract atten- 
tion. Of the people about, no one was waiting for 
anything more than usually occurs on a sunny 
morning at a railway station. Most of those who 
were to take the train were already on board. Of 
those in the room beside the railroad officials, there 
was a slender, light-complexioned man, about forty 
years of age, who walked up and down rather 
nervously, occasionally glancing out of the door 
in a vacant fashion, as if his mind was bent upon 
some strangely fascinating picture. This man 
bore the rather euphonious name of Charles Jules 
Guiteau, and though he had been noticed by the 
railroad employes, still his was not a face or figure 
that would have attracted attention in a crowd. 
And no one paid any attention to him or his move- 
ments. 

He walked up and down the room without 
ceasing, as the slow minutes passed away, moving 
the length of the settees with short irregular steps. 
He had just reached the end of the room as the 
President entered arm in arm with his Secretary. 
Guiteau turned about, set his teeth, and quietly In- 
serted his hand within his pocket. The President 
passed beyond him, he advanced one step In the 
same direction, drew a heavy revolver from his 
pocket, pointed it steadily and fired deliberately 
at the man he had come to murder. 

The President made no sign he was hurt, but 



594 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



turned with gentle, yet surprised look to see 
whence came the murderous bullet. Secretary 
Blaine sprang to one side, Guiteau who stood on 
his right re-cocked his revolver and with the de- 
liberadon of death fired at the President aeain. 
The President fell to the floor, the blood spurting 
profusely from a jagged wound in his side. Gui- 
teau fled. The pistol was dropped and the sm^oke 
of the powder drifted innocendy upward to the 
ceiling. 

Before almost the echo of the report had found 
its way out to the open air, the President was 
surrounded. A terrible deed had been committed. 
Assassination for the second time had stricken 
the Chief Magistrate. For an instant those near- 
est to him could not believe their senses. Then 
ensued a moment of terrible agony and confusion. 
Secretary Blaine sprang after the assassin, who, 
finding his way barred in one direcdon, turned in 
another only to run into the arms of the law. 
Seeing he w^as caught, Mr. Blaine turned again to 
the wounded man. Mrs. Sarah E. V. White, who 
had charge of the ladies' waidng-room ran to the 
President as he fell, knelt down and gently took 
his head in her lap. The shock of the bullet had 
been very great. He was very pale. He neither 
sdrred nor spoke. In a minute vomidne beo-an, 
all color faded from-hls face and he leaned heavily 
on those who were supporting him. 

By this dme had gathered about the wounded 



I 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, tg:; 

man a horror-stricken crowd. Secretary WIndom, 
Secretary Hunt, Postmaster-General James and 
others of the party that had met to accompany the 
President north, were all in and out of the room 
sendine hither and thither messencrers and mes- 
sages for doctors. The President's own carriage 
dashed off at a gallop to the White House, to the 
astonishment of the people on the avenue who 
had not yet learned the direful news. A local 
physician was first to arrive of those summoned. 
He came in breathless, in response to the awful 
summons, just as a mattress was brought on which 
to lay the wounded man. The room being un- 
comfortably crowded with men — in whose eyes 
stood tears, gathered in the first pause of their 
terror to offer any, every aid in their power — It was 
decided to remove the President to the room above. 

Hardly had the mattress been laid upon the 
floor, when the wounded man, ever thoughtful of 
those nearest to him, ever forgetful of self, even 
while his life blood was oozing from him, turned to 
his friend and said: 

" Rockwell, I want you to send a message to 
' Crete ' " (the pet name used for his wife, Lucretia) . 
"Tell her I am seriously hurt, how seriously I can- 
not yet say. I am myself, and hope she will come 
to me soon. I send my love to her." 

Was there ever anything more ineffably tender, 
more wonderfully gentle than this ? History does 
not contain a similar tenderness in all its many 



59^ 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



thousand pages ! Stricken down by the assassin's 
bullet, in the most powerful and prosperous mo- 
ment his country had known for half a century, 
uncertain whether he was then and there to re- 
nounce the crown he had so lately won, so proudly 
worn ; his whole heart was turned to her, who for 
years had been his helpmate and his life, and he 
sent his love to her ! As his messenger wrote 
down that immortal sentence, tears fell fast and 
free from those around who knew now, if they had 
never known before, how noble a man w^as the 
President — how true, how brave, how good. 

During the dictation of the dispatch. Dr. Bliss, 
who had come from the White House, and several 
other physicians arrived. A minute's inspection of 
the wound by Dr. Bliss, an experimental prob- 
ing with his finger, demonstrated that the President 
was terribly wounded. It was Imperative he 
should be removed to the White House, where he 
could receive every attention his case demanded. 
An ambulance was speedily summoned. The 
President was brought down-stairs as gently as 
loving hands could carry him, and laid within it. 
The doctors got In, and the horses started off at 
a dead run for the Executive Mansion, which was 
reached In less than ten minutes. The members 
of the Cabinet and Immediate associates of the 
President who were at the station had already 
reached the White House. As the President 
was lifted out of the ambulance, the pallor of 



JAMES A. GARFILLD. c^gy 

death stamped upon his face, he glanced upward 
to the windows ; there were his friends, waiting, 
sadly, silently, fearing their beloved friend would 
be borne home to them dead. As he recognized 
them, he raised his right hand, and with a smile, 
which those who saw It will never forget, gave the 
military salute, as if he would say to them, "Long 
live the Republic." He was carried swiftly and 
gently to his own bed in an upper chamber at 
the south-east corner of the Executive Mansion. 

Close upon his arrival, followed some friends, who 
hurried to the White House with blanched faces 
and aching hearts, fearing the worst. Soon after- 
ward Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. James and Mrs. Windom 
were joined by Mrs. Blaine and Mrs. W. T. Sher- 
man. Other friends of Mrs. Garfield quickly ar- 
rived, but were denied admittance, and the pon- 
derous eates which lead to the Executive Mansion 
were closed, and armed military sentinels, as If 
by some fearful magic, silently took their places 
about the house and grounds. These troops were 
ordered from the garrison at the Washington 
Arsenal In order to relieve the regular police, 
whose services were needed in the city, where the 
crowds were rapidly increasing, angr}' with excite- 
ment. There was only one company of soldiers, 
but the glance of their bayonets flashing in the 
sunlight, as they walked with measured tread the 
several paths to which they were assigned, seemed 
portentous of an awful fate hanging over the Re- 



598 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



public, and recalled the last hours of President 
Lincoln, when the same astonishment and horror 
were reflected on the faces of the people who' 
surged about the Executive Mansion, and watched 
similar silent sentries pacing under its leafy trees. 
In the room above lay the President, surrounded 
by the most eminent physicians in Washington.' 
He at first complained of pain in his feet more 
than in his arm or body, and at his own 
request his feet were undressed and rubbed. 
The doctors cut away his clothing to get at his 
wounds. The shot in the shoulder had passed 
around the bone without breakino^ it. The bullet 
which entered the back over the hips did not pass 
through the body, and, although the doctor probed 
the wound with his finger, he could not m.ake out, 
with any certainty, what direction the ball had 
taken, nor where it was lodo^ed. The nervous 
prostration, seemingly, was passing away, and the 
President assumed his usual composed manner, 
greeting members of the Cabinet, and other 
Intimate friends who called, with a warm pres- 
sure of the hand, and with cheerful words. This 
cheeriness excited the strongest hopes of the 
surgeons that the ball had not touched any vital 
part, and that when he had gained sufficient 
strength and composure an effort might be made 
to find the ball. Directions were eiven that he 
should see as few persons as possible, and that he 
should be kept from conversation, or making any 



1 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



599 



particular effort whatever. After consultation, it 
was determined by the surgeons that at three 
o'clock, if his condition would permit, they would 
probe for the ball. When this hour arrived it 
was found that he was not in condition to undergo 
the operation, and it was again postponed. 

At no time, however, did the spirits and courage 
of the wounded man fail him. His genial good- 
nature, his gentle disposition never forsook him, 
even in his agony. Turning to his Secretary, 
about half-past two in the afternoon, he said : 

" Blaine, what motive do you think that man 
could have had in trying to assassinate me ?" 

"Indeed I do not know, Mr. President. He 
says he had no motive. He must be Insane.** 

" I suppose," came back the answer with a smile, 
" he thouofht it would be a orlorious thino^ to be a 
pirate king." 

A little later, James, his own son, sat sobbing by 
the bed. His father turned to him, and said : 

" Don't be alarmed, Jimmy, the upper story is 
all right; it is only the hull that is a little damaged." 

To Dr. Bliss, who had been requested to take 
charge by the President, he was at times quite 
jocular, the vein of conversation being of a light 
character, and keyed so as to encourage his 
friends and attendants. He informed the Doctor 
that he desired to be kept accurately posted as to 
his exact condition. " Conceal nothing from me, 
Dortor ; for remember, I am not afraid to die." 



5oo ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Toward four o'clock, when evidence of Internal 
hemorrhage became unmistakable, and all the 
indications seemed to point to death, the President 
spoke again : 

" Doctor, what are my prospects ? Are they 
bad. Doctor? Don't be afraid; tell me frankly 
I am ready for the worst." 

"Mr. President," returned the physician, ''your 
condition Is extremely critical. I do not think 
you can live many hours.'* 

" God's will be done, Doctor ; I'm ready to go if 
my time has come," firmly answered the sick man. 

Thenceforth his anxiety for the arrival of his 
wife increased with every hour. She was at Long 
Branch, for her health. On that eventful morning, 
General Swalm announced to her, as gently as he 
could, that the President had been shot. She im- 
mediately began preparations for her departure 
for Washington. Before she started, General 
Swaim received the following dispatch : 

" Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, July 2d, i8Si» 

^^ General Swaim, Elberoji, New Jersey : 

''We have the President safely and comfortably settled in his 
room at the Executive Mansion. His pulse is strong and 
nearly normal. So far as I can detect from what the surgeons 
say, and from his general condition, I feel very hopeful. 
Come on as soon as you can get special. Advise me of the 
movements of your train, and when you can be expected. 
As the Prosident said, on a similar occasion, sixteen years 
ago, 'God reigns, and the government at Washington still 
lives.' *'A. F. ROCKWELL." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5OI 

At 12.45 P- ^- ^^ special train furnished by 
the Pennsylvania Railroad was ready, and sped 
away to Washington, at sixty miles an hour. A 
little latter, Colonel Rockwell told the President 
Mrs. Garfield had started, when he replied, with 
evident feeline, " God bless the little woman ! I 
hope the shock won't break her down." Impa- 
tiently her arrival was awaited through the long 
hours of that awful afternoon. Her arrival was 
delayed somewhat by an accident to the engine, 
and it was not until almost seven o'clock that the 
sound of carriage wheels was heard upon the 
gravel driveway. "That's my wife," said the Presi- 
dent, and his face brightened with a cheery smile. 

Mrs. Garfield was so fatigued by her hasty trip, 
taken suddenly and In such a state of health, that 
she grew faint, and felt herself obliged to go to 
the dininor-room below for some refreshment. She 
went down-stairs, accompanied by Colonel Rock- 
well. They had scarcely seated themselves at the 
table, when an attendant rushed in and told them 
the President was sinking fast, and that they should 
at once hurry to his bedside. He had kept him- 
self up largely by will-power, and now that the 
suspense and necessity were over, had shov/n 
signs of a physical collapse. From this moment 
he failed fast, his voice sinking to a whisper, and 
his whole aspect being that of a dying man. The 
persons present In the room, except the family 
and personal attendants, retired, in order to allow 



5o2 ^^-^'^^ ^^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the family to meet around the bedside alone 
They remained together about fifteen minutes — 
fifteen minutes that will live forever in their memo- 
ries ; fifteen awful minutes, when death seemed to 
hold all under the spell of his terrible presence, 
as he sat in patient earnestness at the President's 
side ; between them and him. At the end of that 
time the doctors were ao^ain admitted to the room. 
They found the President perfectly conscious, but 
much weaker, his pulse being 146. From this 
time he seemed to sink slowly, as the minutes 
were told off by the solemn clock, never to come 
again. How slow they seemed to go to the agon- 
ized, yet silent watchers in that sick room ! They 
would look at the clock ; they would pass in re- 
view all the eventful hours of that lonof horror-laden 
day, all the eventful days In the career of the man 
before them ; they would think over and over the 
little kindnesses of his life, and e^ance ap-aln at the 
clock, to see that only a minute had been added to 
eternity ! Was he to die ? Was he to leave them 
In the flower of his manhood, in the hour of his 
country's pride,* at the height of his well-won 
honor? They knew not, and shuddered! 

This was the sad scene within the White House 
walls. Outside and beyond, the world was In a 
fever. Hardly had the President fallen by the 
assassin's bullet before the telegraph had winged 
the news to all parts of the land. As the dispatch 
flashed along, " The President has been shot, the 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 



603 



assassin arrested," those who heard it could not 
believe the words. The thing was too terrible to 
be true, on such short notice. By and by it came 
to be believed, and yet not comprehended. That 
the good and able President had been, on this 
bright, sunny second of July, shot down in the 
nation's capital — assassinated ! No, no ; it could 
not be true. 

Rapidly the terror spread, as the full measure 
of the deed came to be comprehended. In every 
city, in every town, in every village of the United 
States groups formed about the telegraph and 
newspaper o^ces and other centres of informa- 
tion, and discussed in excited fashion the terrible 
news. In the great cities the telegraph carried it 
to all the principal hotels, and from these common 
centres of information, it radiated to the smallest 
side streets in the crowded tenement-house dis- 
tricts. Before noon there was scarcely a man, 
woman or child who did not know that the Chief 
Magistrate had been shot, and probably killed. 
Groups formed on the sidewalk, in hotels, clubs, 
parks ; wherever there was opportunity for men to 
gather together, they assembled in crowds, and 
talked over the tragedy which had been enacted- 
at the capital of the nation. But little of the de- 
tails of the crime were known at this time, and 
speculation had full swing, not only in debating 
upon the probable results of the attack on the Pre- 
sident, but in seeking some plausible motive for 



6o4 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the act of the assassin. If President Garfield 
should die, Vice-President Arthur would become 
the Executive of the nation ; and the effect of his 
accession to the power and patronage of the Ex- 
ecutive office was the subject of grave discussion 
among business men of the community, many of 
whom were alarmed at the prospect of President 
Garfield's death. The only confidence displayed 
was the belief In the Innate strength of our popu- 
lar institutions ; and men went about their busi- 
ness with sad faces, but still hopeful that the worst 
to be feared ml^ht not be realized. 

After 1 1 o'clock the news came slightly more 
in detail ; and, with the absolute knowledge that the 
President was still living, and that Dr. Bliss gave 
great hopes of his recovery, men breathed more 
freely ; but still there was a sad and subdued look 
upon the faces of all as they passed on the street 
or met in the public places. The newspapers 
everywhere were receiving dispatches every few 
minutes, and, as fast as they came, they were 
promptly bulletined. These bulletin boards were 
the centres of attraction, and the sidewalks and 
streets in front of them were soon crowded with 
men, who stood in the broiling sun and forgot 
the heat in their Intense eacrerness for the latest 
scrap of Information. Between eleven and noon, 
the crowds became so great that traffic was Im- 
peded, and the efforts of the police to keep clear 
the passageways gradually grew less and less 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5qc' 

successful. These men were very quiet and or- 
derly, and talked in low tones of the tragedy. 
The excitement was too deep to display itself in 
the ordinary noisy way, and the sadness of the 
people too genuine to expend itself in loud talk. 
There were men of all shades of political opinion 
in every group, but they had but one sentiment in 
common about the great crime which had been 
committed ; and the invectives heaped upon the 
murderer were bitter and terrible. 

At noon the "extras" appeared, and the de- 
mand for them was so great as to be beyond the 
power of the press to supply. The information 
given in these early dispatches was very brief, but 
it was of a reassurinq^ nature. The President was 
conscious, the doctor thought he might live, while 
the assassin was in jail under strong guard. The 
hopes held forth by this new^s were eagerly grasped 
at by the excited multitude, and all began to feel 
somewhat reassured. Dispatches continued to be 
received every few minutes, and the news which 
they contained was posted on the bulletins and 
issued in extras during the entire afternoon. Up 
to three o'clock they were favorable to the re- 
covery of the President. The feeling began to 
prevail that, after all, it might yet be well, and peo- 
ple began to congratulate themselves on the safety 
of the Chief Magistrate, now their idol. 

This feeling of security, however, was short- 
lived. At three o'clock the information was 



5o6 ^^^^ ^^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

flashed across the wires that hemorrhage had set 
in, and that the President was sinking slowly, but 
surely. At the same time a dispatch was posted, 
announcing " President Garfield has just died." 
This heart-piercing intelligence spread rapidly, and 
Its effect was to casta gloom over the entire country. 
In some places it was known that this announcement 
was false, but it was felt to be absolutely certain that 
the President could not live, and the crowds in the 
streets waited silently and mournfully for the dis- 
patch which should confirm their fears and an- 
nounce that all was over, Policemen were little 
needed to keep the crowd in order. It was com- 
posed of all classes of citizens, from the merchant 
prince to the common laborer. There were rough- 
looking men, too, standing in the sun side by side 
with the wealthiest and most refined. There were 
men who, in ordinary times and in an ordinary 
crowd, would be regarded as dangerous compan- 
ions, but they were not dangerous now, and they 
gave the police no trouble. They were watching, 
like their more respected fellow-citizens, at the 
death-bed of the President of their country, and 
from many an eye, which for years had been un- 
moistened by emotion, were roughly wiped the 
tears as the telecrrams stated the President to be 
sinking — sinking — sinking ; that the doctors had 
given up all hope of saving his life ! The faces 
of the men were sad and subdued. They spoke 
to each other in a half breath. The scene was 



JAMES A GARFIELD. 5q^ 

one which impressed itself so deeply that it can 
never be forgotten. There was pushing and edg- 
ing forward to get better views of the bulletins, 
but the pushing was done gently and quietly, and 
there was none of the fierce, impatient struggling 
which usually characterizes street crowds. Had 
the men been actually participating in the funeral 
services over the President, or one of their own 
blood, they could not have conducted themselves 
with more propriety. 

At last darkness fell ; the expected announcement 
of the President's death had not, thank God, been 
made. The crowd still linorered about the bulletin 
boards, and eagerly read the dispatches. Extras 
were still being issued, and bought by the expect- 
ant multitude as fast as the presses could turn 
them out. The dispatches up to 9 o'clock were 
all of one kind. The President Is sinking, they 
said, and there is no hope of his recovery. They 
struck upon the crowds gathered in the streets 
with a mournful effect At 9 o'clock it was 
announced, in a telegram from Postmaster-General 
James, that the sufferer was sleeping, and that his 
pulse was not so high as it had been. This was 
at least a ray of sunshine among the shadows, 
and expressions of hope that he might yet survive 
were indulged in, although few really believed 
that there was any chance for his recovery. In 
times of great calamity men are apt to build hopes 
upon very slight foundations, and the dispatch of 



5o8 L^^^ "^^'^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the Postmaster-General was hailed with heartfelt 
gladness. It was speedily followed by other tele* 
grams which chilled the joy to silence, and re- 
stored the aching pain. At lo o'clock the notice 
was again posted that there was no hope, and the 
crowds In the street settled down to wait, with 
mournful patience, for the announcement which 
was certain to come sooner or later — certain to 
come sometime during a nieht of sorroAV and sad • 
ness such as they had never passed before. 

Now announcements were made with less 
rapidity than In the earlier hours of the evening, 
but the people still waited patiently, conversing in 
groups on the possibilities of the President's 
recovery. Expressions of sincere sympathy for 
the sufferer, and maledictions against his ruth- 
less assailant escaped from all Hps. Telegrams 
bearlnof discouraoflnor tidincrs from the White 
House were greeted widi low, deep murmurs of 
hopelessness. 

Just before 1 1 P. M. was posted the fact that 
Mr. Garfield had rallied, and could converse 
freely with his attendants, on reading wliich 
the crowds gave vent to such expressions as 
"Thank God for that," "Good; give us some more 
like that." "The crisis is now over," said some, 
" and the President will recover." And yet this 
was said more because they wished it so than be- 
cause they believed It. Still they lingered, and the 
same scenes that had so distinguished that Satur- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



609 



day evening from all other evenings in their lives, 
continued into the early hours of Sunday, only to 
diminishing numbers of watchers, for one by one, 
sad and disheartened, they drifted away, until the 
last of them was greeted by the dawn of a cheer- 
less day pushing its way into the dolorous streets. 



5io ^^^^ ^^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER ur 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Hours of Suffering. 

THE night of July 2d, 1881, will forever 
mark an era in the history of the Execu- 
tive Mansion — an era of faint hope and 
fell despair. The particulars of that night of anx- 
ious watching and fearful forebodings will probably 
never be written. The actors in the scene were 
too busy and too much excited by their fears to 
remember half of the little incidents which go to 
make up the story ; but some dim picture of the 
terrible life drama which was enacted in the Presi- 
dent's chamber, while the whole world was await- 
ing with breathless anxiety its culmination, may 
be drawn at this time, while the actors of it still 
hold its prominent features fresh in their memory. 

The symptoms of death, which had seemed so 
sure, so evident durino- the lonor reaches of the 
afternoon and the early hours of evening, grew 
fainter by 7.40. Shordy after, the patient slept 
naturally for half an hour. When he awoke, he 
said to Mrs. James, the wife of the Postmaster- 
General, whose hand he was holding : " Do you 
know where Mrs. Garfield is now?" 

" Oh, yes," Mrs. James answered, " she is close 
by, watching and praying for her husband." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5l I 

Then he looked up to the lady with an anxious 
face : " I want her to go to bed. Will you tell her 
that I say if she will undress and go to bed, will 
turn rieht over, and I feel sure that when I know 
she is in bed, I can go to sleep and sleep all night? 
Tell her," he exclaimed, with sudden energy, " that 
I will sleep all night, if she will only do what I ask.'* 
Mrs. James conveyed the message to Mrs. Gar- 
field, who said at once : '' Go back and tell him 
that I am undressing." 

She went back with the answer, the President 
turned over on his right side and dropped into a 
quiet sleep almost instantly. 

He rallied a little about 9.20. Feeling more 
like himself, he said to Dr. Bliss: '^Doctor, what 
are the indications ?" 

Dr. Bliss replied : " There is a chance of re- 
covery." 

"Well, then," responded the President, cheer- 
fully, " we will take that chance." 

At 10.20 the symptoms were more favorable, 
and afforded a ground for hope. The temper- 
ature was normal and the pulse had fallen four 
beats In the hour. The change was certainly 
marked and gratifying. At 1 1 P. M. the symptoms 
were still favorable, and when midnight came, the 
sufferer was in a deep and restful sleep. 

About the White House and all around the 
White House grounds there was no sleep. There 
watched the people, for the heart of the Nation was 



5i2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

with its President. That morninor none of them 
knew just how they had heard the news. They 
could not trace the source of the rumor. It came 
in subdued whispers. It seemed to come from 
everywhere, and spread with the morning breeze. 
With a wild rush, they had followed the ambulance 
that bore the wounded man to the Executive Man- 
sion, only to be halted at the gates. This was their 
place, and this position they never left or aban- 
doned for days and nights, through storm and sun. 
The people could not give up their loved Presi- 
dent. So they stood guard over him, without 
noise, without commotion, but faithfully, silently, 
holding fast to the palings of the iron fence, as if 
they would with their own liands keep back Death. 
Hour after hour they waited in the hot sun for news. 
They were not content with the brief official bul- 
letins, but importuned every one who came from 
the White House. They begged for fuller in- 
formation. " What do they think the prospect is ?" 
" What is said in conversation amone those near 
the President?" "Do they look discouraged?" 
These, and a multitude of similar questions were 
eagerly asked. Cabinet officers, foreign ministers, 
high officials, phys-icians and surgeons, and persons 
who held cards of admission were going and coming 
constantly. All were spoken to, all were besought 
for one morsel of good tidings. But the utmost 
quiet prevailed. The faithful people moved and 
spoke as in the shadow of a great calamity and 
in presence of an awful tragedy. There was 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. 5j^ 

no louder noise than the playing of the foun- 
tains. And even this was stilled at last, as the sun 
sank with the color of blood across its face. Yet 
the people waited unmoved. Night came calm 
and still. And yet no one went away from the 
gates. The people were still with their President. 

Sunday dawned, cloudless and fair to see. 
During the day, which repeated many of the fea- 
tures of the day before, better arrangements were 
made concerninof the manaofement of the case, 
and the recovery from the shock permitted more 
attention to be paid to details. 

The arrangements which secluded the President 
from noise or disturbance of any kind, were very 
complete. Only privileged visitors were allowed 
to go up-stairs at all. These were received in the 
private secretary's room, made memorable by the 
fact that the emancipation proclamation was signed 
therein. It opens by a door-way to the left into a 
room in the south-east corner of the building, oc- 
cupied by the executive clerks. Here the bulle- 
tins from the physicians were brought, and a tele- 
graph instrument in the end of the corridor just 
ouside, sent the tidings round the world. To the 
right of the private secretary's room, is the room 
where the members of the Cabinet sat. Next in 
the suite beyond *the Cabinet room, comes the 
family sitting-room, of polygonal shape, with 
book-cases in its recesses and alcoves. Beyond 
this, is the room known as the State bed-chamber, 
and next to this, cames two rooms in the north- 



6i4 



LIFE Ayn PUBLIC CAREER OF 



west corner, which are the President's sleeping 
and dressing apartments. In this south-west 
corner the wounded President lay, remote from 
noise or bustle, while in the south-east corner 
rooms, his friends awaited in anxious suspense in- 
telligence of his condition. 

The following plan of the room will give an 



idea of its arransfement : 

o 



to 



c 

Cfc 






Window. 



Window. 



Bureau. 



be 

(3 



Easy 



.0 



Chair. 



Table. 



President's Bed. 



P O o3 



S3 
s ^ 

o o 



Door to 
Corridor. 



Corridor. 



Corridor. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5ic 

The room Is known as No. 17. No. 18 was 
the room given up to the Cabinet. 

There were rarely more than two or three per- 
sons at a time in the sick room. Mrs. Edson, the 
nurse, who so faithfully waited upon Mrs. Garfield, 
during her illness, in May and June, stayed in the 
room, and Mrs. James, Mrs. Blaine and Mrs. Hunt 
took turns sitting at the bedside of the Presi- 
dent and fanning him. One of the physicians 
remained in the room ; the doctors alternating 
In this service. The others sat in the adjoining 
room, within call, in case any change of symptoms 
In the patient needed their collective attention. 
No conversation was allowed, and the scene was 
hushed and still. 

The patient furnished frequendy, throughout 
Sunday, evidences of his extraordinary moral 
courage, his good temper, cheerfulness and regard 
for the feelincrs of others. At times he would ex- 

o 

press anxiety for those who were attending him, 
and inquired whether they had had proper rest. 
Occasionally he asked to be Informed of the gene- 
ral news of the day, and requested that the lead- 
ing editorial articles of certain newspapers might 
be read to him. He expressed a desire to be in- 
formed as to what was being said about the 
attempted assassination, and, at his earnest re- 
quest, Mrs. Garfield proceeded to read to him 
from the newspapers. When a paragraph was 
read hinting that the crime which had prostrated 



6i6 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



him was the result of a conspiracy, he shook his 
head, and said, with emphasis, " I do not beheve 
that." So the day wore on. The hours passed 
with slow monotony, with alternating hope and fear. 
An incident occurred which showed, as the night 
settled down upon Washington, at once the great 
good-nature of the President, his utter abnega- 
tion of self, and his intelligent recognition of the 
importance of the physicians' order for remaining 
quiet. Gen. Swaim was sitting by his bedside, 
fanning him, and to him the patient persisted in 
talking. Gen. Swaim remonstrated several times 
about continuinof such efforts aofainst the order of 
the physicians. The remonstrances failing to pro- 
duce the desired effect, then Gen. Swaim said, in 
a petulant tone : " I won't talk to you and won't 
listen to you. Why don't you keep quiet?" The 
President laughed at this outburst, and said: 
" What is the use of your getting mad with me, 
Swaim ? You know sick people must be in- 
dulged." To this. Gen. Swaim returned : " I will 
get mad if you don't stop talking now. You 
must keep quiet. If you don't, I won't take care 
of you, and won't let any one else do it." Again 
the President laughed at his old friend's bluntness, 
and, grasping his arm, said, with a twinkle in his 
eye, '' I will make a treaty with you. If you keep 
my mouth filled with ice, I will keep quiet." " It 
is a bargain," responded Swaim, as he proceeded 
to carry out the terms of the treaty. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 5j^ 

At another time during the night, when Col. 
Rockwell was watching by the bedside, the Presi- 
dent moved uneasily and uttered a slight groan. 
Col. Rockwell asked if he was suffering much 
pain, to which the President responded : " Yes, I 
suffer some. I suppose the tigers are coming 
back ; but they don't usually stay long. Don't 
be alarmed, old boy." 

The night was, in spite of the President's cheer- 
fulness, to every one at, or connected with the 
White House, a night of suspense and agony. 
It seemed as though the shadow of death had 
settled there, and that death itself might come 
before morning. The President's pulse was ac- 
celerated by a fever which would have burned his 
life away if not reduced. Those ominous prickly 
sensations in the feet and legs, characterized by 
the patient himself as ''tiger clawing," showed 
that the nerves were protesting at some great in- 
jury done to one of the largest of them or to their 
centre, the spinal cord. It was a grave, critical 
time. The silent physicians, as they bent over the 
bedside, testing the pulse, the respiration and the 
temperature of the blood, knew that medical skill 
was of litde avail. Restoration from relapse was 
to be the work of nature alone. 

Nature did what was hoped she would do, though 
for three hours or more she struggled terribly 
with death. At length death was vanquished; 
but for how lone? Would there be another 



5ig LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Struggle, when, taxed beyond the power of resist- 
ance, nature must succumb? The physicians, as 
they silently moved from the sick chamber to the 
adjoining darkened room, where sat the members 
of the Cabinet, strangely mute, expressed this idea 
to them. It was needless for them to Inquire. They 
glanced up with Imploring look, and their glance 
asked the question more eagerly than words could 
ever do. 

At midnight the White House doors were 
closed, and all the door-keepers departed but 
one, who seated himself at the open window on 
the west side of the corridor, on the lookout to 
admit privileged visitors. Thereafter nobody, 
except the physicians and Cabinet Ministers, was 
allowed to go up-stalrs. A fat colored policeman 
kept patient watch at the Iron gate In front of the 
grounds, before which a large crowd still lingered 
wistfully. A regular soldier, with fixed bayonet, 
paced silently on the path behind him. His comrades, 
wrapped In blankets, lay sleeping under the trees 
upon the eastern greensward, their rifles stacked 
in front of them. A long-bearded police sergeant 
sat, club in hand, upon the White House porch, 
surrounded by a dozen waiting newspaper men, 
beginning their weary all-night vigil. In the 
shadow of the turn In the pathway stood a hack, 
its negro driver fast asleep upon his box. At 
intervals, the white helmet and military short cloak 
of the officer in command of the troops appeared 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



619 



out of the darkness, as he walked softly by on his 
rounds. The leaves of the trees were unstirred 
by the slightest breeze, and hardly a sound broke 
the stillness. 

At I o'clock there was a subdued stir, caused 
by the arrival of a bulletin from the four phy- 
sicians on guard In the sick-room. It was has- 
tily perused by the reporters, who Instantly flitted 
£)ff to the telegraph office. Their appearance 
at the gate had an electrical effect upon the wait- 
ing crowd, who ran along with them, eagerly ply- 
ing anxious inquiries. The rnessage they threw 
right and left was of hope and improvement, and 
was received with sighs of relief and fervent 
"Thank Gods." 

Alone in the hushed city, the great Western 
Union Building blazed with light, and buzzed with 
the hum of instruments. The receivlno-room was 
thronged by message-senders, and on the operating 
floor a double force of perspiring operators were 
working at high tension. . At i .30 it was announced 
by the physicians that no further bulletins \Vould 
be Issued until 7.30 in the morning, and soon 
afterward the members of the Cabinet took their 
departure, for the purpose of obtaining a few 
hours of needed sleep. Secretary Lincoln said, 
in passing out, they had been assured that no 
change was likely to occur before morning. 
Secretary Blaine, when asked in a whisper 
regarding the probabilities, mournfully shook his 
head and hurried away. Secretary WIndom 



520 ^^^^ ^^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

paused to request the door-keeper to summor^ 
him immediately should anything serious happen. 
All were grave and silent, and the impression they 
left was one to deaden hope. All the physicians, 
except Dr. Woodward, retired at i o'clock, and 
the President was reported to be sleeping quietly. 
At 3.30 a messenger emerged from the White 
House and aroused the sleeping hackman In the 
shadow, and the vehicle rattled out of the gate, 
returning soon afterward with a tall, thin, white- 
whiskered gentleman in black, who was imme- 
diately ushered up-stalrs. This w^as Dr. Agnew, 
of Philadelphia, who had been telegraphed for. 
A few minutes before 4 o'clock the muffled boom 
of ihe arsenal eun called attention to the fact that 
the skies were briofhteninof with the comlnof dawn 
—the dawn of Independence Day, the glorious 
Fourth, now shrouded in silence and clad in 
mourning. As if they had awaited the signal, the 
robins and other birds immediately began to chirp 
and whistle all over the spacious grounds, and two 
tiny sparrows, who had a nest in front of the 
centre of the White House porch, flitted busily 
to and fro, conveying food to their brood. The 
sun quickly mounted the heavens. The soldiers 
on the lawn aroused themselves one by one, and 
.crept sleepily off for a wash and breakfast. An 
ancient servant appeared from the cellar-depths 
with a long ladder and put out the lights In the 
grounds. People began to pass in the streets, 
and life gradually returned to the sorrowing city. 



jAiMEs A. Garfield. ^21 

At 6 o'clock, Secretary Hunt's coachman drove 
up, and a messenger descended the White House 
stairs and informed the yawning watchers that the 
physicians had arisen, and had made a cursory 
examination of the President. Their conclusion 
was that he had held his own durine the nioht. 
The messenger added that they were preparing 
to hold a consultation with Dr. Agnew, and that a 
thorough and exhaustive examination would take 
place at once. This was received by the crowds 
at the gates with joy — it presaged some little hope. 
How grateful these people were for even a little ! 
Certainly nothing more touching than the faithful- 
ness of these crowds in front of the White House 
gates w^as witnessed in connection with the affair. 
Let me cite the messenger's experience that 
morning. As he passed the gates he was eagerly 
questioned for news by a colored man, who had 
stood guard there since the first. He was em^ 
phatically w^hat is called " a poor nigger." He 
was hatless, shoeless, shirtlsss. The few worn 
garments which invested his spare frame wanted 
only an apology for going to pieces. His frizzed 
hair and thin gray beard were disheveled, but 
they seemed to gain a glory from the tints of 
the bright warm sunshine, whose heat was almost 
t overpowering. Like an ancient servitor, stood 
the old man close to the sentries, and peered 
through the iron gates, whose portals he could 
not pass. When the messenger told him the 



\ . 



622 



LlFJj AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



doctors had great hopes of saving the President, 
he said, simply but with fervor: "Thank God for 
that!" and turned again to his post by the paUngs, 
resuming his patient watch. 

And so it was everywhere about the city. Men 
were tearful, prayerful and quiet. High and 
low shared in the feelings of sympathy and devo- 
tion. The Cabinet officers and their wives, men 
of mark who had won renown in battle, debate, 
or in the marts of trade, all had the sense of 
personal bereavement. Even old army veterans, 
some of them battle-scarred, to whom wounds 
were mere child's play in war-time, cried outright 
as the varying bulletins told the ebb and flow of 
that most precious life. 

And this was the way in which the dawn of 
our National holiday came in at our National 
Capital. It hardly need be said there was no cel- 
ebration. No one had the heart to do more than 
grieve. For the first time in the history of the 
American Republic die anniversary of the Dec- 
laration of Independence was passed in the capi- 
tal of the nation with no signs of recognition 
except the hoisting of the National flag. As it 
fluttered to the breeze, announcing life to the 
people, there were within the White House, pale 
faces and aching hearts. The President was ao^ain 
sinking. His life hung upon a thread. Dr. Frank 
H. Hamilton, of New York, was in consultation 
with the regular surgeons and Dr. Agnew. A 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 523 

crisis had been reached. The consultation gave 
but htde hope. As the heat of the day grew more 
pronounced, the President's condition became 
worse, and unfavorable bulletins carried all over 
the land crloom and mourninor. 

The heat was a bad omen for the wounded Pre- 
sident ; but his chamber was darkened, and Mrfu 
Garfield sat by his side fanning him. The ladies 
of the Cabinet relieved her from time to time, and 
there was no lack of loving hands to minister to 
the wants of the illustrious patient. Mrs. Garfield 
was the only member of the family allowed to 
enter the sick room. She sat by the bedside 
holdine her husband's hand, and refused the 
surgeon's request, to leave him a moment, that 
she mieht take much-needed rest. The ladies of 

o 

the Cabinet were excluded from the room, except 
at such time as some one of them was needed to 
attend to the President, and no person, except 
those who were called for actual service, was 
permitted to enter. Absolute quiet was imper- 
ative. 

Secretary Blaine was early at the White House, 
and was present during the closing minutes of the 
consultation of doctors'. After it was ended, he 
paced the library thoughtfully, battling manfully 
with the belief he couldn't overcome, that the 
President must. die. Secretary Kirkwood and 
Postmaster-General James, with Mrs. James, 
entered the White House after the consulta- 



624 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



don was ended. Secretary Hunt and Attorney- 
General McVeao^h followed soon after. All the 
gentlemen looked sad and weary from long 
watching; but most of them were hopeful of the 
future, or at least tried to be. Not one of them 
saw the President, but they watched silently in the 
library, catching eagerly every piece of news which 
came from the sick man's chamber. 

At noon, tke physicians made another exami- 
nation of the wound. The result of this exami- 
nation was not unfavorable in any sense. It did 
not show any change for the worse, but it did not 
indicate any change for the better. During the 
last hour the sick man had been seized with several 
attacks of vomiting, but no serious consequences 
were anticipated from them. The surgeons, by 
careful treatment, had succeeded in alleviating 
the pains in the feet and legs, and the patient 
rested much more easily than he had since the 
shooting. After noon, a great part of the time up to 
3 o'clock was passed in sleeping. The naps were 
short, seldom exceeding five minutes, but they 
were refreshing, and they were relied on by the 
physicians to do much good. The President would 
awake from them, remain with his eyes open for 
about five minutes, and then doze off again. 
After one of these short naps, while Col. Rock- 
well was holding his hand, he suddenly asked : 
" What is the feeling in the country ?" Col. Rock- 
well replied: "The country is full of sympathy 



JAMES A. GARFIELD: ^^K 

for you. We are saving all the papers so that 
3'ou can see them when you get well ; but you 
must not . talk now. You can rest assured that 
all the people are greatly concerned about your 
condition." The President smiled, pressed his 
arm, turned over, and dozed off again. 

The hours draes^ed themselves alonof on leaden 
feet. The heat erew more intense, ever exciting 
the gravest apprehensions in the minds of 
ever}^body as to its effect upon the sufferer. Yet 
the multitude of patient waiters in front of the 
gate grew larger constantly, until, to effect an en- 
trance, one was obliged to make a detour of a 
half a block through the middle oi the broad 
avenue. There were well-dressed men and 
women, laborers and negroes, all quiet, sober and 
silent, with deep anxiety depicted on their counte- 
nances, patiently awaiting the issue of the next 
bulletin, which it seemed would never come. It re- 
quired a strong effort of memory to recall the an- 
niversary that was passing away. Hundreds of 
privileged persons crept solemnly in and out of 
the White House, as though attending a funeral. 
All conversation was in whispers. Very little in- 
formation was to be had, and that not of a reas- 
suring character. Nobody v/as admitted to the 
sick chamber. The ante-rooms were swelterlnof; 
but everybody lingered until 7.30 o'clock, when 
another official bulletin was issued, describincr the 
President's condition as worse, and statlnor that 



526 Z/i^^" AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

the dreaded tympanites had increased in spite of 
the efforts of the physicians. The announcement 
fell like a pall upon the listeners, and, quickly 
spreading through the city, deepened the gloom 
that everywhere prevailed. It was of no avail 
that sanguine persons were to be found, who said 
that it was only natural that ailing persons should 
become depressed at nightfall. The extension of 
the tympanites was regarded as indicative that the 
sufferer was worse than at the same time the night 
before. The next two hours were the most anx- 
ious and miserable that the countr}^ had yet passed 
through. The awful suspense, the heavy hours of 
the Saturday before came back more horrible than 
ever. Then came another bulletin, full of unex- 
pected cheer. "The President's condition," it said, 
'' has gready ameliorated." With lightning rapidity 
these words passed from mouth to mouth, followed 
by a train of brightening faces, and such exclama- 
tions as "That's good!" "Thank God!" and 
" Bless the Lord !" In an incredibly short space 
of time, the encouraging story was the topic of 
excited conversation everywhere — -on the streets, 
in the hotel corridors, In homes, and In the cars 
all over the United States. Other reports, many 
of them well authenticated, came quickly after, 
each promising better things than the other, and 
the Fourth went out In a condition of universal 
thankfulness and rejoicing befitting the nation's 
birthday. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. • • ^^7 

The scene within the White House durin^ ^^ ihat 
evening is thus described by an eye-witness : 

''There was a crisis. For the first time after his recovery 
from the shock of the bullet, the President seemed to lose 
hope himself. Part of the time he was delirious. He slept 
a little, but it was a sleep largely produced by frequent doses 
of morphine. He suffered pains ; he moaned and tossed in 
his bed. The cheerful look departed from the eye. There 
were no jests upon his lips. The wives of the Cabinet officers 
were constant in their attendance. Everybody was already 
worn out when the result of the early evening consultation 
was announced. As is already known, it was unfavorable. 
Tympanites had again appeared, and apparently in a more 
threatening form than before. Grave men shook their heads, 
and Mrs. Blaine came from the President's room weeping. 
Even the brave Mrs. Garfield lost somewhat of the splendid 
courage which had sustained her throughout her trying 
ordeal. She almost fainted ; and as the hot breath of the 
night and the gloom of the twilight entered the apartments, 
it seemed as though they foreboded a tragic ending of the 
crime of the fanatic. 

" The chief men of the*country were grieving with the nation. 
I sat in the great East Room with the Attorney-General. The 
last time I had been there it was at Mr. Hayes' last diploma- 
tic reception, when thousands of elegantly dressed people 
thronged it, and music and lights and flowers made it, for 
that evening at least, the handsomest room in the country. 
Last night there were no lights. The great spaces were 
gloomy with what seemed to be the 'gloom of coming death. 
Through the open windows on the south side the summer air 
stole lazily, and the shadows of the draperies seemed to add 
to the darkness. There was no music now — only the sound 
of whispered conversation as people went up or down the 
stairs. Secretary Blaine came down alone. He looked 
worn out physically, and his face was the picture of unutter- 



•^28 ' ^^^^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

able grief. He spoke to no one, apparently saw no one. 
His eyes were on the floor as he passed out upon the porch 
finning himself. That sick man's fate meant a great deal to 
his first Secretary ; .but there has been no talk of that/and 
for all that the world knows there has been no thought of it. 
The spectacle of the strong man of the White House struck 
down in an instant without warning, for no reason, and only, 
to gratify the whim of a madman, absorbed everything else. 
The highest public duty, to save the life of the President, 
seems to be the thought of everybody connected with the 
government. Justice Field seemed constantly present at the 
White House, nervously moving here and there, talking with 
many of the attendants, and evidently finding it impossible 
to be at ease when he could not be in constant receipt of 
news from the President. 

'^ Sitting in the room with Mr. McVeagh, I learned the 
state of mind of all about the White House. It is the fact 
that for at least two hours there had been no hope of the Pre- 
sident's recovery. The doctors, the attendants, the ladies 
about the house and those who visit the family had given up. 
It was not thought that the patient would die during the night, 
but it was conceded that at least all hope had left. It is won- 
derful how strongly the President has attached to himself all 
those about him. . Great, big, bluff, hearty Ingersoll, who has 
loved Garfield many years, but who has been somewhat 
estranged of late, walked through the upper halls with tears 
streaming down his cheeks. The members of the Cabinet 
seemed to feel as. though they were losing a lifelong, personal 
friend. No one could doubt that who listened to the dis- 
couraged tones of Mr. McVeagh, as he said that he had no 
longer any hopes. • Men cannot give their voices the quality 
of sympathy that comes from within and cannot be counter- 
feited. 'Ah,' said he, Mie was never a better President than 
he was at the moment when Guiteau's bullet struck him down. 
He never saw more clearly, and he never had a firmer or better 
purpose. He was going to be all that the best thought of the 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



629 



country ev€r expected of him. He was going to be a great 
President, ' 

** Suddenly there was a change for the better. Toward 
midnight, the troubled slumbers of the President became peace- 
ful, and he soon" sank into the best sleep he had enjoyed since 
the shooting on Saturday morning. His pulse and temper- 
ature became better ; there were signs of an improved vitality ; 
the breathing was easier j the pains ceased; there was no 
longer any appearance of dangerous inflammation or of peri- 
tonitis; hope began to dawn where despondency had been; 
the faces that had been full of gloom began to look liopeful; 
there was yet some encouragement; recovery flung out her 
signals in the steady breathings and the peaceful slumber of the 
President. The improvement continued, and soon it was cer- 
tain that the patient would at least survive through the night, 
and that it could again be said that there was hope of fiinal 
recovery. It seemed as though the strong will and constitu- 
tion of the man had made one more effort for life. The 
struggle all along has been one of ups and downs. Now the 
wound appears to have its way. and then again the man of 
vim, will and frame asserts himself. This ought to be borne 
in mind in considering the relative importance of the bulle- 
tins that are issued by the attending physicians. They simply 
indicate a struggle and the existence of a possibility that the 
President may live. That is all." 

The next mornlnor there seemed to be more 
sunshine In Hfe, more beauty in nature, more good- 
ness In the world — the President was better. 
During the day and the next night he held his 
own. On Wednesday, Washington returned to 
Its normal. condition. All business, which had 
been so rudely Interrupted, went on again as usual, 
and the bulletins that appeared from time to time, 
were encourao^inof. 

The President had all along been impatient 



5^0 ^^^^ ^^'-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

to see his children, who up to this time — 
July 9th — had been excluded from his bed-room. 
He was, however, so well on that day, that it was 
decided to allow them to come in one by one. 
The three children were called together — Harry, 
Jimmie and Mollie — and each was told that a visit 
was to be paid to their father. Before being 
admitted to the room they were cautioned not to 
talk and not to allow their father to converse with 
them. As Miss Millie entered the sick room she 
stood on the threshold a moment, and brushine 
away a few tears that would show themselves, she 
advanced firmly up to the bed on which her father 
lay.' The President was turned the other way 
when his daughter entered, but he heard her light 
step and at once guessed it was she. 

" My dearest girl," he said, moving near where 
his daughter was standing. He clasped her hands 
in his and was about to speak further when she 
disengaged one of her hands and placed a finger 
across his lip. He playfully attempted to bite the 
finger and then smiled. 

" You are a brave, good child, Mollie," he said ; 
" and you must hope that your papa will get well." 

"You will get better, papa.; I know you will," 
Miss Mollie replied, trying" to keep back the tears; 
" but you must not talk." 

The father held his daughter's hands in his 
until the latter quietly slipped out of the room, 
knowing that her brothers would be impadent for 
the favor she had already enjoyed. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. g -5 X 

The meetine between father and sons was af- 
fecting. He grasped the right hand of Harry, .the 
elder, and was evidently greatly agitated. The 
youth bore himself well and showed no signs 
of the storm that must have been raging within 
him. He said a few cheery words to his father, 
and the latter responded a trifle sadly that he 
hoped he would get better to be with his wife 
and children once more. Seeing that his pres- 
ence seemed to affect his father Harry withdrew 
and Jimmie was admitted. He was detained by 
his father for a long time, but the President did 
not talk much, as his son would not allow him to 
do so. The President asked him what he had 
been doing all the morning, and Jimmie answered 
that he had been waiting to see his papa. " That's 
a good boy, my son," said the father. 

From that day until Saturday, July 23d, there 
was nothing, apparently, but a steady march to 
convalescence. While the hearts of the people 
watched eagerly, closely, always, for the slightest 
change, they had come to the conclusion that 
Providence was on their side, and the President 
w^ould get well. Aided by the physicians, he was 
rapidly doing so. That morning, however, there 
was a relapse. This is told in the story of the bul- 
letins, to which the next chapter is devoted. 



5 -.2 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE STORY OF THE BULLETINS. 



WHEN the President lay wounded in the 
railway station, the first physician to 
reach his side was Dr. Smith Towns- 
hend, Health Officer of the District of Columbia. 
Dr. Townshend, on arriving, found that a faint and 
slight vomiting had just occurred. There was no 
pulse perceptible. Aromatic spirits of ammonia 
•and brandy were immediately administered. The 
clothino- havinor been loosened, Dr. Townshend 
examined the wound, and was impressed with a 
belief that it was necessarily fatal. Dr. Townshend j 
was succeeded by Dr. D. W. Bliss, whom the . 
President immediately asked to take charge of \ 
his case. A number of doctors answered the 
summons for medical aid with promptness, and 
from those who came, three more were selected 
to assist Dr. Bliss, namely, Surgeon-General J. 
K. Barnes, of the army; and Doctors J. J. Wood- 
ward and Robert Reyburn. During Saturday 
and the ever-eventful Sunday, these gentlemen 
decided that the best thing to .do was to do very 



I 







SURGEONS IN CHARGE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD 



JAME^ A. GARFIELD. 5^ 



"> 



little. The wound was situated on the right side, 
four Inches from the spine, and passed between 
the tenth and eleventh ribs, fracturing the upper 
edge of the latter. The ball then passed appa- 
rently through the liver, and lodged in the abdo- 
men. The wound was dressed antlseptlcally (i. 
e., the preventing of putrefaction of the wounded 
parts)— quinine was administered to prevent ma- 
laria seizing on the system, and a hypodermic in- 
jection of morphine was also given to Induce sleep 
and quiet the bowels. It was deemed advisable 
to send for further medical advice, and Doctors. 
Frank H. Hamilton, of New York, and D. Hayes 
Agnew, of Philadelphia, were summoned by 
telegraph. They arrived Monday morning, and 
with the surgeons already in attendance, held 
a consultation. They fully approved the course 
of treatment that had been adopted, and urged. its 
continuance. 

It was then decided, in order to satisfy the 
extreme anxiety of the public, to Issue official 
bulletin's three times daily. The use of technical 
terms In these bulletins could not be avoided, es- 
pecially when the necessity of condensation. In 
order that they might be quickly prepared and 
frequently issued. Is taken into consideration. It 
Is but natural that very many persons should 
be unfamiliar with these terms, and, with the 
view of rendering the bulletins intelligible to 
all, the surgeons accompanied the figures showing 



^34 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



temperature, pulse and respiration with a brief 
remark, to the effect that "the President's condi- 
tion continues favorable." 

The followinof tables will enable the reader to 
obtain a correct diagnosis of the case on three 
points — pulse, temperature, respiration— from the 
first day until July 15th, on which day, convales- 
cence seemed so sure that I stopped compiling the 
tables. The letters M, N and E, stand for morning, 
noon and evening, and the positions of the dots on 
each square of the diagram show the upward and 
downward fluctuations from better to worse and 
from worse to better during each day of the 
President's illness, the normal condition beine 
shown by the horizontal lines of dots in the 

tables of respiration, pulse-beats and temper- 
ature. 

























pays of 
Disease^ 


1. 

MNK 


2. 


3. 4. 


5. 


G. 


7. 


8. 


9. 


10. 


11. 


12. 


13. 


d 

JO 

1 

•i- 


H 

'^ 


H 

■< 


50.... 
40..., 
35.... 
30.... 
25.... 
20.... 

15* vv» 

10.... 


MXE Ma'E MN-E 


MNE 


MNE 


MXE 


MN-E 


1 
MNEIMXE 

1 1 


MXE 


MNE 


MNE 
























































































—.A 




















/ 


-«_i.-».^ 


»■-♦-«- 


1 * 1 * 1 


W' 


\^*^* 


^- 






















f '" 




























































-,— — 1 


■ 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



635 



Dnys of 

Disease. 




140... 


H 


130.. 


120... 


i 


no.",. 


-4 


100... 


>"1 


^ 


90.... 
SO,.., 
70 







MXEl.MXE -MXE'MXE 



5. 



7. 



8. 



MXE 



M.VF. 






MXE 



MNE 



10. 



MXE MXE 



11. 


12. 


13. 


MXE 


MXE 


i'MXK 


















_\4/\|A/!-:u.\/-\,.Y ' 



I I 



a 
p. 



o 
X 



Da>-5 of 
Disease. 



1 



i3 









104" 
103° 
102' 
I01'» 
100'. 

93<»... 
07"..- 




«a! 



a 

a 

o 



A word in explanation of these tables. "Pulse," 
on a bulletin, means the number of beats per 
minute of the patient's pulse. This, as every- 



• 



636 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



body understands, is determined by counting the 
pulsations, watch in hand. "Temperature " means 
the degree of heat, Fahrenheit, of the patient's 
body. This is ascertained by placing the bulb of 
a small thermometer, specially arranged and 
adapted for the purpose, in the. mouth of the pa- 
tient, or under the armpit, as the attending surgeon 
may -see fit. The highest degree registered by 
the mercury shows the temperature of the body. 
" Respiration '' means the number of breathings 
per minute, and these, like the pulsations, are as- 
certained by watching and counting the times the 
chest rises and falls per minute. In good health, 
the natural beats of the pulse vary in different 
persons. The average of adults is from 60 to 70- 
per minute. There are, however, very wide dif- 
ferences, even in healthy persons. For instance, 
Bonaparte's natural pulse-beat was only about 42, 
while that of one of the lord justices of England 
was as high as 128 per minute. These, however, 
are extremes. Then, too, the pulse-beats of 
healthy persons vary at different times of the day, 
or, according to the position of the body, or to 
the activity or quiet of the person. . The greatest 
frequency of the beats occurs during the middle 
of the day, and the least about midnight. As a 
rule, in health, the pulse is quicker in the morn- 
ing than in the evening ; but in fever, especially 
in warm weather, this is reversed, and the increase 
is in the eveninq;-. 



JAAILS A, GARFIELD, 6''*' 



0/ 



The President's pulse, since the hopeful symp- 
toms of his case set in, has invariably quickened 
in the evenincr and decreased in the morninir. 
The doctors attributed the increase to the heat, 
stir and bustle incident to the daytime, and the 
decrease to the cooler atmosphere and the gene- 
ral quiet which prevailed at night. President 
Garfield's natural pulse, when in good health and 
quiet, is about 70 beats per minute. The highest 
pulsation reached in his case was 126. For sev- 
eral days it ranged from 108 to 96. In cases of 
extreme lethargy, the pulse has been known to go 
down to 17, and the other extreme on record is 
200 ; the latter occurring in children afflicted with 
water on the brain. The average temperature or 
natural heat of the human body, In good condi- 
tion of health. Is 98^^° (98.5° Fahr.). The 98th 
deofree is marked on the thermometers as '' blood- 
heat." Cases are on record in which the tem- 
perature rose to 108° in children and 107° in 
adults; but 105° is regarded as almost certain 
death, and 104° as extremely dangerous. Rav- 
ing yellow fever patients are said to rarely go 
above 105°. The President's temperature has 
been as low as 98.9°, only four-tenths of a degree 
above normal. On the 12th It reached 102.8°. 
The surofeons ascribed this unusual rise — It had 
not been going above 101°, and fractions — to ex- 
citement of the patient, produced by the hammer- 
ing and other noises and stir necessary to the Intro- 



638 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



duction of the pipes for compressed air. In cases 
of cholera, die temperature of the body has been 
known to fall to "]^^ \ but the icy hand of death 
already had hold of the patient. The President's 
respiration varied .from 19 to 24. In health, and 
when entirely free from any exciting influence, the 
natural respiration (number of breathings per 
minute) of an adult Is from 14 to 18, but, In cases 
of sickness and wounds, it has been recorded as 
low as 7 and as high as 100 per minute. 

The story of the bulletins through these thir- 
teen days Is further elaborated from their text. 
The most important question presented the doc- 
tors, w^as. Where was the ball ? Surgeon-General 
Wales, of the Navy, after an examination on 
Saturday evening, located it as lodged in the ab- 
dominal cavity. Drs. Hamilton and Agnew con- 
curred in this opinion. On Sunday, the appear- 
ance of tympanites gave rise to alarm. Tym- 
panites is a swelling of the abdomen, like a drum 
(tympan), from an accumulation of air or gases 
in the intestinal tube or in the peritoneum. It 
happily dlsappearej:! before it developed to any 
very serious extent. The President, from the 
first, complained of pains In his feet and ankles, 
which Dr. Agnew ascribed to the laceration of the 
liver and severinor of certain nerves thrown out 
from the spinal column. On the evening of the 
4th, the tympanites was again more noticeable, 
while the pains in the feet had been alleviated. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5^g 

During that day, there was some sHght vomithig, 
but it ceased by midnight. Milk and hme-water 
was given in small quantities, from Saturday till 
Monday afternoon, when a little chicken broth 
was administered. The intestinal functions were 
normally performed, and there was no attempt 
made to force food upon the patient, in order that 
the pelvic organs might be as little disturbed as 
possible. Brandy and cracked ice were adminis- 
tered on Saturday in small quantities, but it was 
found that the patient could not retain it. On 
Sunday night,* a glass of champagne was given, 
with excellent effect. On Monday, It was decided 
to give as little as possible of anything. On 
Tuesday, the patient was able to retain an ounce 
and a half of chicken broth every two hours. The 
wound was dressed again, as it had been each day, 
antiseptically. It took only half a grain of mor- 
phia to induce the necessary sleep. 

The bulletins of July 7th, noted the continuation 
of the favorable symptoms. The night before, a 
quarter of a grain of morphia sulphate was ad- 
ministered. That mornlnor. oat-meal eruel and 
milk were taken, at intervals of two hours, with ap- 
parent relish. The slight yellowishness of the 
skin, indicating a wound in the liver, which ap- 
peared the night before, had disappeared. The 
bulletin of July 8th, stated that during the after- 
noon and evening of the day before, the President 
was troubled with acid eructations, and the 



640 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



administration of nutrients was suspended for 
several hours. One quarter of a grain of mor- 
phine was administered hypodermically at 8.30 P. 
M., and followed at once by tranquil sleep. To- 
ward midnight, however, restlessness was notice- 
able, and a good deal of muscular soreness in the 
feet and of pain in the ankle joints. After i o'clock 
A. M., the patient passed the night tranquilly, 
sleeping composedly most of the time. At intervals 
after that hou-r he took an ounce of albumen 
chicken broth, alternating with an ounce of milk, 
to which a teaspoonful of very old and excellent 
rum was added. All this was retained, as well as 
five grains of sulphate of quinia, taken the next 
morning at 8 o'clock. The yellowish tinge of the 
skin had sensibly diminished. When the antisep- 
tic dressinor was renewed that morning the wound 
was found to be discharging a small quantity of a 
healthy looking pus. The reaction accompanying 
the establishment of suppuration was, as might be 
expected, marked by a slight rise of temperature 
and pulse as compared with the corresponding 
hours of the day before. This, however, was not 
regarded as unfavorable under the circumstances. 
That night the patient became restless, and 
seemed anxious for the morphia. A quarter of a 
grain was administered under the skin. The next 
morning, the Qtli, he took 10 grains of sulphate of 
quinia, which did not disturb the stomach. This 
thereafter was about the usual course, a little 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5 . I ' 

morphia at night, and quinine in the morning ; 
dressing the wound antiseptically, the pus dis- 
charging itself through a small drain-pipe inserted 
in the wound to the depth of three and a half 
' inches. Rum and milk with a little milk toast was 
the general diet. On the 13th, he had for break- 
fast the breast of a woodcock, which he chewed, 
but did not swallow. On the 14th, there was a 
decided improvement in the appetite, and in ad- 
dition to the diet just mentioned, he was given a 
small sandwich made of bread and scraped raw 
beef, a small quantity of beef juice, with an ounce 
of Tokay wine, all of which he appeared to relish. 
The effect of this increase in the. quantity and 
variety of the food was plainly visible in the addi- 
tional strength exhibited soon after partaking of it, 
as the digestive organs continued to perform their 
functions in a h-ealthy manner. On the 15th, the 
improvement was so marked, that although the 
consulting surgeons did not say so, it was believed 
that the patient was convalescing. The craving for 
food was quite marked on that day, and a beef- 
steak asked for, which was naturally refused. 
The condition of the wound was now very favor- 
able, and it was evident that it was healing rapidly, 
the ball beine lodeed in the abdominal wall. It 
could be removed by an operation, or it might be 
inclosed in a sack of membrane and stay in the 
system without producing the least deleterious 
effect during the remainder of the President's life. 



642 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



On the 23d, came a relapse. That morning, 
about 7 o'clock, the President was taken ' with a 
severe chill while the physicians were examining 
and dressing his wounds. They detected a tre- 
mor before he complained, and instantly re- 
placed the bandages. The patient clenched his 
hands, and his face became white. He looked 
anxiously at the physicians, but said nothing. 
Slight contractions of the muscles then appeared 
and later on his jaws moved convulsively. Pres- 
ently the muscles softened, and he breathed heavily. 
The chill seemed to have passed away, but In less 
than a minute he was again suffering. The same 
symptoms appeared as during the first attack, but 
remaining longer. After another interval.of re- 
lief, they appeared for the third time. The three 
spasms lasted twelve minutes. Morphia was then 
administered, and the President became quiet, but 
for more than an hour afterward he was restless, 
in some pain, and in constant apprehension of 
another chill. It thus happened that it was 10 
o'clock before the physicians felt justified in re- 
moving the bandages to complete the examination. 
The result was that the President's condition 
changed from pulse 92, temperature and respira- 
tion normal, at 7 o'clock, to pulse 1 10, temperature 
loi, and respiration 24 at 10 o'clock. This change^ 
thoroughly alarmed the physicians. They had 
said, during the earlier days of the President's con- 
finement, that his safety depended largely upon 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^^ 

the prevention of a chill, and that in case of a chill 
there would be little hope for him. Of late, while 
not positively declaring him out of danger, they 
have given it to be understood that recovery was 
practically assured. The appearance of a chill 
at this time was, therefore, wholly unexpected. 
Their first thought was that the indication pointed 
to a fatal termination, and dispatches were at once 
sent to Drs. Hamilton and Agnew, the consulting 
physicians, urging their Immediate attendance. 
This was at 9 o'clock, when the pulse leaped to 
130. It subsided rapidly during the next hour. 
Between 10 and 11 o'clock, however, fever set In 
strongly, and there was a second chill at 1 1 o'clock. 
Nothing having, up to that time, been heard from 
the consulting surgeons, a second dispatch was 
sent to them, and replies were received early In 
the afternoon. The pulse took an upward turn, 
and by i o'clock a partial examination showed a 
pulse of 125, and a temperature at 104, or five 
and a half degrees above normal. The tempera- 
ture had reached so high a point but once before 
since the shooting. At this time, under an in- 
creased dose of morphia, the President fell asleep. 
Thereafter during the afternoon he slept fitfully. 
The pulse had fallen to 106 at 3 o'clock, and to 100 
shortly before 4 o'clock. During the night the 
President rested well up to midnight, under the 
temporary relief afforded by the resumption of the 
discharge from the wound, and the Increased hyp- 



^.. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

i 

notic administered. The recurrence of a slight ■ 
chill at midnight, however, showed that the diffi- 
culty was not all removed. 

As soon as it was possible next morning, an 
examination by the six surgeons was had. This 
showed that a pus cavity had formed in the track 
of the ball, near and beyond the point v/here it 
glanced from the rib,- and that this cavity could be 
reached by a direct incision three inches belo-w 
the mouth of the wound. It was decided at once 
to perform the operation. No anaesthetics were 
used, but the part to be operated upon was be- 
numbed by a spray of ether, and a wide cut 
was made into the pus cavity, which was reached 
at a depth of little more than an inch. With the 
aid of a probe and a pair of forceps, a drainage- 
tube, which is a small flexible tube of rubber, per- 
forated with holes, was then introduced into the 
wound made by the ball, and, after being carried 
through the pus cavity, was brought out through 
the newly-made incision. One end of the tube 
then projected from the cut made by the surgeon's 
knife and the other from the mouth of the origi- 
nal wound. As the pus oozed into the tube 
through the perforation, it could escape from 
either end, and was repeatedly washed out with a 
weak solution of carbolic acid and water, which 
was thrown through the tube in a stream. The 
discharge which followed th(^ opening of the pus 
cavity was entirely satisfactory to the su>rgeons, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



645 



and was soon followed by relief to die patient. 
The operation was performed by Dr. Agnew. 
The formation of this cavity was quite natural, 
when It is remembered that the direction taken by 
the ball after it entered the body w^as forward and 
slightly downward, until it struck one of- the ribs. 
It was thence deflected still further downward 
and a little to the right, so as to make an acute 
angle with the line of the back. In other words, 
when a probe was introduced Into the wound to a 
depth of three or three and a half Inches, its di- 
rection was such that Its inner end was only about 
an inch and a half from the outside of the body 
at a point lower down. The operation was most 
successful, and, by the evening of the 25th, the 
President was again himself, though, of necessity, 
rather weak. The operation relieved him greatly. 
One of the difficulties encountered by the phy- 
sicians, was the question of temperature, the in- 
tense heat of the early days of July threatening 
to become a danger. It was decided to attempt 
to lower the temperature of the patient's room, 
by artificial means. At first a simple apparatus 
was attempted, an idea borrowed from India. It 
consisted in a number of troughs of galvanized 
Iron, about ten Inches In width and fourteen feet 
in length, placed on the floor along the walls and 
filled with water and broken ice. Over these 
troughs, and corresponding with them in length, 
were suspended shests oi flannel, the lower edges 



646 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



of which were hnmersed In the ice-water which 
filled the troughs. The water was absorbed and 
carried upward by capillary attraction in the flan- 
nel, as oil is in the wick of a lamp, until the sheets 
were saturated. This cold water by direct contact 
with air and by the rapid evaporation which takes 
place over the extended surface of the saturated 
flannel, lowered the temperature of the room. It 
did not, however, produce sufficiently good results, 
and was abandoned in favor of other methods. 

All sorts of systems w^ere proposed and brought 
to Washineton. The White House cellar was 
turned into a machine shop, and exhibited all the 
features of a machinery exhibit. Mr. Dorsey, 
a skillful mining engineer, was placed In charge 
of the plans. Whereupon Secretary Hunt issued 
the followine order addressed to Commodore Pat- 
teson, commanding the Washington Navy Yard : 

^^ You will place under the disposal of J^Ir. Dorsey every 
article of machinery for which he may make application to 
you ; you will also assign to duty a skillful and efficient 
engineer and machinist, with such other assistants as he may 
require from you ; you will obtain all necessary transportation 
of material and men Mr. Dorsey may require. They must be 
furnished without delay, as they are for the use of surgeons at 
the Executive Mansion, and are deemed necessary to the 
health and comfort of the President during his present critical 
illness." 

Mr. Dorsey's plan was based on the system 
used to cool the air in mines. The air Is com 
pressed by means of a stationary engine. Thi: 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^.y 

air, when crowded into smaller space, gives out a 
great amount of heat, which is carried away by 
runnine water. As soon as the air is acrain set 
free, it becomes refrigerated by expansion, just in 
proportion as it has before been heated by com- 
pression. The system worked very successfully, 
and by its means the temperature of tlie room 
was kept at 75° to y6°. . 

It was not to be supposed that the country at 
laree would allow the doctors in charQ^e to conduct 
their case unmolested. The opportunity was 
too maornificent for the American letter-writer 
to foreeo. Said one of these crentlemen : 
" Amone the valuable contributions we have 
received is an electrical probe, from Boston, very 
flexible, and the insertion of which will show the 
track of the wound, completing the circuit when it 
comes in contact with the ball. From Brooklyn a 
surgeon has sent a pair of bullet forceps of the 
latest improved pattern. From Milwaukee we 
have received the finest lot of antiseptic dressing 
that could be found in the United States, and 
which is in constant use in the dressing of the 
wound. Besides, the drainage tubes, used in 
drawing the pus from the wound, are the contri- 
butions of the same firm. Rare wines, old wines, 
valuable suggestions from eminent surgeons, and 
advice that is worthless, and which comes by the 
cubic foot from every part of the country, are 
among the daily receipts. Most of the remedies 



648 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



recommended are what are known as ' old 
women's' remedies. One man gives this sage 
advice : ' If inflammation sets, apply hot towels as 
hot as they can be borne.' Another man sends 
an instruction that, if followed, will result in a 
certain cure. He sends with it a group picture 
of his entire family, eight in all, ' who pray day 
and night for the President's recovery.' " 

The cure was very largely assisted by the 
President himself. With a noble will-power and 
a splendid courage he fought disease for every 
minute, and defied Death to win. All the while 
he was cheerful to every one. One day, on 
awakening from one of his short naps, he was 
o-iven two ounces of chicken broth. After he had 

o 

eaten it, Mr. Crump, the White House steward, 
took the bowl away, and, seating himself by the 
bed, began to fan him vigorously. The President 
at this time was thirsting for water, and, after 
looking at Mr. Crump quizzically for a few 
moments, he said : " Crump, after the chicken 
broth what comes ?" The steward made no answer, 
apparently forgetting for the moment that the 
President was accustomed to drink after eating. 
After a brief silence. General Garfield said, inter- 
rogatively : "Medicine water?" Crump took the 
hint, and gave him a sip of water, and after 
drinkine it the President orratified the steward by 
clapping his hands in applause. Saturday morning, 
the 9th, Dr. Boynton, his old family physician, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^.^ 

went ill to see him. The President, with a smile, 
said to him : 

" Boynton, I am glad you are here 3^et. What 
do you think of my chances to-day ?" 

" Oh, I think you are getting along very nicely 
indeed, Mr. President. Everything seems favor- 
able for your recovery." 

" I will recover, Boynton ; but I've had a terrible 
struggle with prostration for several days." 

" But you seem to have conquered." 

*' Do you think so ?" 

And then glancing up at the clock, whose hands 
pointed to 9 o'clock, said : " In fifteen minutes it 
wall be a week — a long week, Boynton." 

His eyes closed, and then he said : " Boynton, 
have you any idea where that ball is ?" 

I told him I thought it w^as lodged in the interior 
wall of the abdomen, and he said he thought so 
too, and added : " It is lucky It struck the ribs. If 
this wound can be kept open I wdll get well." 

When first w^ounded, his thought was of his 
loved wife and little ones, and hovv^ to spare them 
pain. I have related elsewhere how he sent a 
dispatch to his wife in the earliest minutes of 
his trial. After her, his mother's anxiety w^as 
uppermost In his mind, and, by his direction, care 
was taken to send the old lady messages of cheer 
and hope. This was done by Harry, the Presi- 
dent's eldest son, in the follov/ino; telegram : 



650 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



'^Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, ^ 

''July 2d, i88x. 
*' To Mrs. Eliza Gai-field, Solon, Ohio : 

" Don't be alarmed by sensational rumors; doctor thinks | 
it v/ill not be fatal. Don't think of coming until you hear 
further. Harry A. Garfield." 

When those good, kind-hearted women, Mrs. 
James, Mrs. Hunt, and others, sat up during the 
long watches of Saturday night, when all was 
gloom, and not one bright ray of hope appeared, 
and when he was told he had only a single chance 
of life, he repeated that. he was not afraid to die. 
During this time, there was, on his part, the most 
tender consideration for others. He moved his 
arm, while in a paroxysm of pain, and just touched 
a little rudely one of his kind-hearted w^atchers. 
Instantly he lost all feeling for himself, and his 
lips parted with a heart-felt apology for having 
been o-uilty of brusqueness toward the lady who 
had not even given the circumstance a thought, 
and would not have done so had it not been for 
the innate manliness of the one who lay on his 
bed of pain. His demeanor toward his noble- 
hearted wife was chivalrous in its best sense. He 
ever soueht her ease and welfare, and to keep her 
from anxiety and suspense. When she first en- 
tered his room, he met her with a smiling face ; 
and he had a smile and a word of cheer always 
afterward, even though his sufferings were at 
times very great. 

Next to the good effect of his own spirits as a 



yAMES A. (GARFIELD. gr ^ 

curative agent, must be placed the invincible faith 
and devotion of his wife. Her cheerful, hopeful 
demeanor did much to free from care her hus- 
band's mind. She had just risen from a bed of 
sickness, and he was afraid that she would have a 
relapse. She, poor woman, knowing- his fear, 
steeled herself by a mighty effort. Conquering 
everything, she took up her new burden with the 
strength of a devoted heart, and carried it with 
the bravery of a martyr. To no one did she 
complain ; to no one did her husband say a 
word of aught except kindness. They were a 
model husband and wife, under circumstances 
most trying to their natures. Each brought solace 
to the other ; and the wife ministered at the bed- 
side of her liecre with an intellicrence none the less 
powerful and efficient than the love she showed. 
The few persons who were admitted to the cham- 
ber of pain — the doctors, the watchers and the 
nearest of kin — bore unconscious testimony to 
the conduct of the first gendeman and first lady 
of the land. Words were let drop, kind expres- 
sions were repeated, and bit by bit came out the 
heart-history of the loving pair. Such stories 
spread. All were only too willing to help em- 
balm in the memory of friends the ministry of 
love and gentleness, of kindness and of devotion 
which the national Executive Mansion disclosed. 
; People took the stories to heart, and they 
fashioned inwardly portraits of the President, 



I 



5^2 J^J-P^ AA^D PUBLIC CAREER OF 

which did no Injustice to the kindest and best of? 
men the earth ever saw. There was a hero wor- ,, 
ship that was carried out to a surprising- extent ; \ 
but the people knew and felt there was a good '\ 
basis for much of what they believed, and the i 
crlamour of devotion added briorht and attractive ' 
colors to the picture, and gave it a frame of affection. | 

One more glimpse of Mrs. Garfield to close the 
chapter. The New York Chamber of Commerce 
inaugurated, as the reader knows, a subscription 
of ^250,000 for Mrs. Garfield, and after her, her 
children. When the announcement was made to 
her, she said, in a voice tremulous with emotion : 
" If it were only possible," she said, " for my hus- 
band and me to q-q around and see all those dear 
people who have been so grateful in their remem- 
brance for us here of late days, I Vv^ould be so 
happy; and I know he would, too. I want to thank 
them — to tell them all how kindly I feel toward 
them for what they have said to me. I never 
could understand anything about politics, and if I 
liked a person, it made no difference whether they 
were Republicans or Democrats ; and now I have 
ofrown to think that there is not much difference 
between the two great parties, for one says just 
as kind words in our present afihctlon as the 
other. It makes me feel like forming an opinion 
as to what I would do were women permitted to 
vote as well as men. I believe I would cret two 
tickets, fold them together so as to look like one, 
and drop botli in the ballot-box.'* 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5^-5 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE WORLD WITHOUT. 




FTER the first moments of amazement, 
incredulity, horror and suspense, the peo- 
ple — the world — offered condolence. The 
emotion and spectacle were without parallel. 
In every household there was a hushed and 
tender silence, as if one long loved lay dying. 
The public festivities of the Nation's birthday 
were stayed, and the crowds that had gathered to 
form festivals were transformed into praying con- 
gregations, earnestly petitioning the Throne of 
Grace for mercy for the President. Abroad, 
American gayety was given over. In the 
British Parliament, Whig, and Tory, and Radi- 
cal listened to catch from the lips of the Prime 
Minister, the latest tidings from the sufferer. 
From the French republic, from the old empire of 
Japan and the new kingdom of Bulgaria, from 
Parnell, the Irish agitator, and from the Lord 
Mayor of Dublin, came messages of sympathy and 
sorrow. Sovereigns and princes, the people and 
the nobles, joined in earnest hope for the life of 
the Republican President. The press of all Chris- 
tendom told the mournful story, and moralized 



654 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



as It told. At home the popular grief was ab- 
solutely unanimous. One tender, overpowering 
thought called a truce even to party contention. 
Old and young, men and women of all nationali- 
ties and of all preferences, their differences for- 
gotten, waited all day for news, watched the flags 
and every sign that might be significant, and lay 
down to sleep, thanking God that, as yet the worst 
had not come. 

It was a marvelous spectacle. It was — this 
feeling of millions for that one man — profoundly 
touchinor. It blessed him with oreat distinction 
among mankind. It blessed the country In that It 
stirred the peojDle with a great overmastering 
emotion. I have not space to chronicle all the 
words of sympathy that went on the wings of the 
wires to Washington. They Avould fill several 
volumes as laro^e as this. In London, the shooting 
of the President excited the profoundest sensation 
of consternation and ornef amoncr the American 

o o 

residents. The greatest anxiety was everywhere 
manifested to hear further news. The offices of 
newspapers and news agencies were visited by 
crowds to crain Information. Crowds ^fathered at 
the American Exchanore in the Strand. As the 
news spread among the theatres and other places 
of resort, the Americans left the buildings, and 
many ladies and gentlemen, in evening dresses, 
went direct to the American Exchange for the 
latest details. There were numerous callers at 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, ^^^ 

United States Minister Lowell's private residence, 
to inquire concerning the President. Earl Gran- 
ville, Foreign Secretary, received a telegram from 
the British Leo-atlon at Washlneton, announclnof 
the sad affair, and he at once cabled his condolences. 
The Queen, who was at Windsor Castle, imme- 
diately, on receipt of the news, personally tele- 
graphed to Minister Lowell a message expressing 
deep regret and concern. The Town Councils of 
many inland towns passed resolutions of sympathy. 
In the British Parliament allusions were made to 
the affair amidst profound silence and regret. The 
Poet Laureate telegraphed his condolences. The 
members of the Royal Family sent to our Minister 
to know all he knew. The Cobden Club for- 
warded a letter to Mrs. Garfield, expressing the 
earnest wish for the President's early recovery. 
Prayers were ordered daily in Westminster Abbey. 
The Lord Mayor of London telegraphed his con- 
dolences. Mr. Gladstone sent fhe following letter 
to Mrs. Garfield : 

''London, July 21st, 1881. 

''Dear Madam : You will, I am sure, excuse me, though a 
personal stranger, for addressing you by letter to convey to 
you the assurance of my own feelings and those of my country- 
men, on the occasion of the late horrible attempt to murder 
the President of the United States, in a form more palpable, 
at least, than that of messages conveyed by telegraph. Those 
feelings have been feelings, in the first instance, of sympathy, 
and afterward of joy and thankfulness almost comparable. 
and, I venture to say, only second to the strong emotions of 



656 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the great nation of which he is the appointed head. Individ* 
ually, I have, let me beg you to believe, had my full share in 
the sentiments which have possessed the British nation. They 
have been prompted and quickened largely by what, I venture 
to think, is the ever-growing sense of harmony and mutual 
respect and affection between the countries, and of a relation- 
ship which, from year to year, becomes more and more a 
practical bond of union between us; but they have also 
drav/n much of their strength from a cordial admiration of 
the simple heroism which has marked the personal conduct of 
the President, for we have not yet wholly lost the capacity of 
appreciating such an example of Christian faith and manly 
fortitude. This exemplary picture has been made complete 
by your own contribution to its noble and touching features, 
on which I only forbear to dwell because I am directly 
addressing you. I beg to have my respectful compliments 
and congratulations conveyed to the President, and to remain, 
dear madam, with great esteem, 

''Your most faithful servant, 

^'W. E. Gladstone." 

To this Secretary Blaine replied by cable : 

''Washington, July 22d, iSSi. 

"Lowell, Minister, London: I have laid before Mrs. 
Garfield the note of Mr. Gladstone, just received by cable. 
I am requested by her to say that among the many thousand 
manifestations of interest and expressions of sympathy which 
have reached her, none had more deeply touched her than 
the kind words of Mr. Gladstone. His own solicitude and 
condolence are received with gratitude. But far beyond this 
she recognized that Mr. Gladstone rightfully speaks for the 
people of the British Isles, whose sympathy in this national 
and personal afiliction has been as quick and as sincere as that 
of her own countrymen. Her chief pleasure in Mr. Glad- 
stone's cordial letter is found in the comfort which it brings 



JA HIES A. GARFIELD. ^ ^ y 

to her husband. The President is cheered and pleased on 
his painful and weary way to health by the many messages o{ 
sympathy which, in his returning strength, he safely receives 
and most gratefully appreciates. 

"Blaine, Secretary." 

On the Continent, the head of every country 
hastened to offer sympathy. The Emperors of 
Russia, Austria, Germany ; the Kings of Sweden 
and Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, 
and Spain ; the Sultan of Turkey ; the Presidents 
of France and Switzerland, hundreds of statesmen 
and distinguished men, sent, through various 
channels to Washington, kind words and wishes 
from sympathetic hearts. 

At home, the universal expression of sympathy 

found appropriate channels in the governors of 

states, mayors of cities, legislatures, boards of 

trade, clubs, associations, and conventions of every 

description, grand juries, churches, etc., etc. The 

South particularly manifested a most noble 

sympathy. Governor R. W. Cobb, of Alabama, 

telegraphed : 

'' Reports of the favorable indications gladden the hearts 
of Alabamans, who profoundly sympathize with the President 
and his family, and bitterly denounce the cowardly and 
brutal attempt on his life. The great peril through which he 
is passing draws all men to him, and he will resume his duties 
with a more generous and patriotic support from the people 
of the whole country." 

Congressman E. W. Robertson telegraphed 
from Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 



658 



LIFE AuB PUBLIC CAREER OF 



"The heartfelt, outspoken sorrow of our people at the late 
dastardly attempt upon the life of the President, prompts me 
to express their prayerful hopes for his speedy recovery." 

Jefferson Davis wrote the following letter: 

''Beauvoir, Miss., July 5th, 1881. 
''Mr. Findley S. Collins — Dear Sir: I have received 
yours of the 4th inst., and thank you for the kind expressions 
it contained. The evil influences to which you refer as 
causing the bitterness felt toward Southern men, it may 
fairly be expected, will give way to the sober sense of the 
people, if they shall, like yourself, detect the sordid motives 
for which the stimulants are administered. I well like the 
telegram you cite in regard to the attempted assassination of 
the President. I am thankful the assassin was not a Southern 
man, but will say I regret that an American crime, black 
enough in itself, has a deeper dye from the mercenary motive 
which seems to have prompted it. I sincerely trust the 
President may recover, and that the startling event will 
arouse the people to the consideration of a remedy for the 
demoralization which a wild hunt after office is creating. 
With best wishes for your welfare, I am, very truly yours, 

'' Jefferson Davis." 

The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army 
of the Republic promulgated the following order : 

'' Head-quarters Grand Army of the Republic, 
''Boston, July 7th, 1881. 

''[General Order, No. 42.] 

*' Awaiting the fateful issue which hangs like a pall over 
our land, grateful for the glimpse of sunshine through the 
dark cloud, the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic 
tender their old comrade in arms, the stricken President, their 
spnpathy and love. What lies behind the veil of the future 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



659 



we may not seek to know ; but remembering that the same 
Almighty which guided us to victory is beside our fallen 
comrade, let us cast out all our fears and send to the throne 
of grace, not a cry of despair, but a prayer of hope and faith 
in the Divine wisdom and love. 
(Signed), 

*^ Geo. S. Merrill, Commander-in-Chief. 
'^William M. Olin, Adjutant-General." 

The bench took notice of the national calamity. 
Said Judge Ludlow, of Philadelphia, in charging 
the Grand Jury for the July Term : 

"We meet to-day under adverse circumstances; we are 
under the shadow of a great cloud, and our hearts beat with 
alternate hope and fear j we do not yet know what the end will 
be, but this we all understand, that law and order must pre- 
vail; that the constituted authorities must be respected and 
sustained, and woe betide the man who dares to raise even so 
much as his little finger against the integrity of the Republic or 
against the life or lives of its lawfully elected officers. I care 
not what may be your politics, faith or religious feelings. I 
know this, that as A.xiericans, you represent not only the citi- 
zens of this country, but, in a sense, Americans everywhere 
all over this land, and you will join with me in as severe a 
condemnation of this anti- American crime as can be uttered 
in human language, and in a devout prayer to the Almighty 
that the life of the legally elected and inaugurated President 
of the United States may be spared to the nation and to his 
family. ' 



>> 



The church was equally as ready. Prayers 
were offered in every pulpit in the land. Special 
services were held, imploring the Almighty to 
spare the President's life. 



66q 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



The Archbishop of Baltimore, the Most Rev. 
James Gibbons, issued the following to his clergy : 

*' Rev. and Dear Sir. — You, in common with all others, 
have heard with amazement and horror of the late attempted 
assassination of His Excellency, the President of the United 
States. It is scarcely possible to imagine a deed more appall- 
ing to men or more iniquitous before God ; for if it is such a 
crime to slay even a private citizen, what an enormity is it to 
attempt the death of one who, while representing the whole 
nation, is also, as to matters temporal, the highest vicegerent 
of God Himself in the land ; and the act of the assassin is 
the more heinous, since he had neither a private grievance to 
avenge nor the semblance of a public wrong to redress. And 
our detestation of the wretch who has stricken down our head 
is yet more increased when we add to the official dignity of 
the sufferer his accessibility and affability to all, and his com- 
mitting, like all his predecessors, his personal safety entirely 
to the good-will and good sense of those over whom he pre- 
sides. Well may we stand aghast when, in this crime and in 
another like crime perpetrated a few months ago, we see the 
mischief of which a single individual is capable when he has 
ceased to fear God, to value man or to dread the conse- 
quences of giving free scope to his own passion. In the fact, 
then, of this most hideous deed, we are called upon to ex- 
press at once our loathing of the crime and our deep sympa- 
thy with him whom this crime has placed in such great suf- 
fering and such imminent peril, for while the Catholic Church 
is happily above all our parties, and is far from the wish to take 
to herself the decision of the very transient, and, as a rule, 
not very momentous questions as to which of these parties 
are at issue, yet none more than the Catholic Church incul- 
cates respect for every duly constituted authority, or more 
reprobates or threatens everything by which such authority is 
assailed. • 

*'^ You will, therefore, with all the power at your command, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 55 j 

nrge our people to pray during Mass, and at other times, for 
the recovery of His Excellency, 'and on Sunday next, should 
lie then still survive, you v^dll say in his behalf, before or after 
Mass, and together with all your people, the Litany of the 
Saints, as at once entreating God to spare his life, and also 
as making an act of expiation for a crime which appertains 
to us as a nation, and not only concerns, but tarnishes us all. 
"Very faithfully, your friend in Christ, 

James, 
Archhishop of Baltimoi'e. 

In Kentucky and Arkansas the 14th of July 
was made, by proclamation, a day of fasting and 
prayer for the President's recovery. Governor 
Foster of Ohio telegraphed the governor of every 
State, asking him to join in a movement to hold a 
day next autumn as a day of National Thanksgiv- 
ing for the President's recovery. Every governor 
except Governor Roberts of Texas, who is a 
crank, answered gladly. The movement of sym- 
pathy was indeed universal from more than one 
hundred millions of men. It was to have been 
expected, as a matter of course, that those closely 
identified with him by long years of personal and 
political association, would, out of the fullness of 
their affection, miingle their tears with those of his 
kindred ; but that so eager inquiries and tender 
messages of sympathy should come from all over 
the world, is the most v^elcome evidence that all 
the world's akin. From every nook and corner of 
our land were messao-es sent freicrhted with loving 
regard, and even the cables, which lay beneath the 



5^2 ^^-^-^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

ocean, were kept busy night and day transmitting 
the sympathy of the rulers, and princes, and peo- 
ples of all civilized nations of the globe. 

Here we will take a hasty glance at one of the 
remarkable features in the attempt on the life of 
the President, before contlnuincf our direct narra- 
live. I refer to the development of the extraor- 
dinary resources of the press at Washington. It 
came suddenlv and without warninof in tke middle 
of the dull season. The winter force of corre- 
spondents had dwindled down one-half, and those 
who were left were dawdling away the first hours 
of the heated term in a semi-demoralized con- 
dition. Many newspapers had discharged their 
specials for the summer and were running short- 
handed. Within twenty minutes on Saturday, the 
sleepy-looking reserve was thoroughly awake, had 
thrown out Its pickets, patrols and videttes, and 
had begun the task of gathering in the details of 
the great crime and preparing it for the press, 
Recruits came flying down, twelve hours later, 
from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other 
contiguous cities, and these, under the veterans of 
the Row, did veterans' duty. The cry of the 
home officers was "send unlimited." The re- 
sponse was in accordance therewith. Every news- 
paper man was worth two, three or four of ordi- 
nary occasions, for he not only developed twice 
the energy but worked all day and all night. The 
result was astonishino^, and it is told with mathc- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^^ 

matlcal accuracy by the figures of the telegraph 
offices. On Saturday, alone, 275,000 words were 
wired from the Western Union office. This was 
the highest record of newspaper work ever done at 
the National Capital. On last Inauguration Day, 
190,000 words were handled, the highest number 
up to the event of July 2d. But the press and 
telegraph companies had full warning and had 
made every preparation previous to the fourth of 
March. It was In a busy season, and a full corps 
of experienced men were at work. Previous to 
the Inauguration record, the highest score was 
during the Credit Mobilier excitement, in 1873, and 
this was only 113,000 words. The highest record 
at the Capital on sensational days has not gone 
over 50,000 words. It will be seen, then, that 
Saturday, July 2d, was an era in Washington corre- 
spondence and telegraphy, both of which reached a 
point of excellence and capacity, under the most 
disadvantageous circumstances, hitherto unknown. 
The record of words at the Western Union does 
not, however, tell the whole story. Several of the 
most prominent newspapers, and notably those 
which take the most matter, have private wires, 
and each of these, alone, sent from twenty to 
thirty thousand words. The second of July, 1881, 
v/IU long be remembered as a black spot in 
American history, but it will also be remembered 
as a brip-ht one in the annals of American 
journalism. 



664 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



CHAPTER XLII. 



THE MISCREANT. 



ALL this time possibly the reader has asked 
what of the assassin ? I have purposely re- 
served any notice of this miscreant as long 
as convenient, for I do not deem him deserving 
of any more notice than is rendered absolutely 
necessary to comprehend the full story. 

Charles Jules Gulteau, the would-be assassin, is 
a man of about forty years of age, and of French 
descent. He is five feet five inches in height, has 
a sandy complexion, and is slender, weighing not 
more than 125 pounds. He w^ears a mustache 
and thin chin whiskers, slightly tinged with gray. 
His sunken cheeks and widely separated eyes 
give him a sullen, or, as the jailer described It, a 
"looney," appearance. He has for some years 
been a person of disordered mind and restless 
habits. Nominally he is a lawyer, although It 
does not appear that he ever had any practice ex- 
cept among persons of the lowest social and moral 
rank. His reputation was bad wherever he went. 
He was at times a religious enthusiast, and In the 
summer of 18S0, turned his attention to politics, 
apparently in the hope of gaining some political 
preferment. 



,^ -«s«V», 




THE ASSASSIN IN HIS CELL. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 55^ 

One who knew him gave this account of him : 
"His father, J. W. Guiteau, was an old resident 
and respected citizen of Freeport, Illinois, where he 
held many offices of trust. Some years ago he 
became deranged on the subject of 'Perfection,' 
and lectured extensively through the North and 
West on that subject. He married a very beau- 
tiful woman, with whom and the younger children 
he joined the Oneida Community. He afterward 
returned to Freeport, where, from 1864 up to 
last September, the time of his death, he served 
as cashier of the Second National Bank. There 
were three children. An older brother, Wilkes 
Guiteau, for a long time practiced law at Daven- 
port, Iowa, but is now practicing his profession in 
Boston, Massachusetts, where also he is at the 
head of large insurance interests. A younger 
sister. Flora, was a very promising girl, having a 
decided talent for music. Charks Jules Guiteau, 
who to-day is in jail for the murder of the Presi- 
dent, was an odd boy. He appears to have been 
the only one of the children tainted with his 
father's eccentricities. When the family left the 
Oneida Community, Charles, then fifteen or sixteen 
years old, was left behind. He afterward went to 
Chicago, where he studied law, being cared for 
and supplied with money by his father. After 
completing his studies, Guiteau went to Europe, 
where he traveled several years, imbibing Social' 
i^tic and other eccentric doctrines. A few years 



666 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



ago he returned to this country, and lectured on 
the second advent of Christ. He pubhshed a 
pamphlet on the subject, in which the egotism of 
the man was plainly shown. He spoke of him- 
self as a messeno^er of God to announce His com- 
ing. His lectures on this subject were a failure. 
Jules — we used to call him Julius, but I see he 
has dropped that part of his name — is now about 
forty or forty-two years old. From what I knew 
of the boy, his education in the Oneida Community, 
and his utterances on religion, I was not at all sur- 
prised at his committing the act. I understand 
from people employed at the White House that 
Guiteau had forced himself upon the President 
several times. He was an applicant for the con- 
sulship at Marseilles, and one day obtained access 
to the President, and acted so rudely that the Pre- 
sident had him removed. I have no doubt that, 
feeling offended by this act, he determined on the 
course which culminated in the terrible tragedy of 
July 2d. Guiteau was hanging around the Re- 
publican head-quarters, No. 241 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, during the campaign last fall. He 
made a few speeches, but his efforts did not seerri 
to be appreciated by the committee. He was 
poor and seedy-looking, and borrowed some 
money from Mr. Jewell after the election, and a 
few days before the committee broke up he asked 
Governor Jewell for a recommendation for a con- 
sulate. He specially urged that if he could secure 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 55^ 

a consulate, a certain rich lady would marry him. 
It is not known whether the Governor recom- 
mended him or not, but one thing Is certain — he 
was looked upon as a person who was not exactly 
right in the upper story." 

When the prisoner arrived at the jail, he was 
neatly attired in a suit of blue, and wore a drab 
hat, pulled down over his eyes, giving him the ap- 
pearance of an ugly character. It Is worthy of 
note, that some days previously, Guiteau went to 
the jail for the purpose of visiting it, but was re- 
fused admittance, on the ground that it was not 
*' visitors' day." He at that time mentioned his 
name as Guiteau, and said that he came from 
Chicago. When brought to the jail by the police, 
he w^as admitted by the officer who had previously 
refused to allow him to enter, and a mutual recog- 
nition took place, Guiteau saying, "You are the 
man who wouldn't let me go through the jail 
some time ago." The only other remark he 
made before being placed in his cell, was that 
General Sherman would arrive at the jail soon. 
The two jailers who guarded his cell, stated that 
they had seen him around the jail several times, 
and that on one occasion he appeared to be 
under the influence of liquor. On one of his 
visits, subsequent to the first one mentioned, these 
officers said that Guiteau succeeded In reaching 
the rotunda of the building, where he was noticed 
examining the scaffold from which some mur- 
derers had been hanged. 



^58 -^-^^-^ ^^^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

The assassin's reasons for the dastardly deed 
are given in the following letter, found in his pos- 
session : 

''July 2d, 1881. 
' ' To the White House : 

''The President's tragic death was a sad necessity, but it will 
i]nite the Republican party, and save the Republic. Life is 
a flimsy dream, and it matters little where one goes. A hu- 
man life is of small value. During the war thousands of brave 
boys went down without a tear. 

" I presume the President was a Christian, and that he will 
be happier in Paradise than here. It will be no worse for Mrs. 
Garfield, dear soul, to part with her husband this way than 
by natural death. He is liable to go at any time, anyway. 
I liad no ill-will toward the President. His death was a 
political necessity. 

" I am a lawyer, a theologian and a politician. I am a Stal- 
wart of the Stalwarts. I was with General Grant and the 
rest of our men, in New York, during the canvass. I have 
j>ome papers for the press, which I shall leave with Byron 
Andrews, and his co-journalists, at 1420 New York Avenue, 
where all the reporters can see them. I am going to the 

jail. 

" Charles Guiteau." 

The following letter was found on the street 
soon after Guiteau's arrest, with the envelope un- 
sealed, and addressed, '' Please deliver at once to 
General Sherman, or his first assistant in charge 
of the War Department :" 

s^To General Sherman : 

" I have just shot the President. I shot him several times, as 
I v/ished him to go as easily as possible. His death was a 
political necessity. I am a lawyer, theologian and politician. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 55g 

I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with General Grant 
and the rest of our men, in New York, during the canvass. 
I am going to the jail. Please order out your troops, and 
take possession of the jail at once. 

'• Very respectfully, Charles Guiteau." 

Detective McElfresh, who took the prisoner to 
jail, reported the following conversation as occur- 
ring- between Guiteau and himself while being con- 
ducted thither: 

" I asked him, ' Where are you from ?' 

" ' I am a native-born American — born in Chi- 
cago — and am a lawyer and a theologian.' 

'' ' Why did you do this ?' 

" ' I did it to save the Republican party.' 

" ' What are your politics ?' 

*' ' I am a Stalwart amonnr the StaUvarts. With 
Garfield out of the way, we can carry all the 
Northern States, and with him in the way, we can't 
carry a single one.' " 

Upon learning that McElfresh was a detective, 
Guiteau said : " You stick to me, and have me put 
in the third story, front, at the jail. General Sher- 
man is coming down to take charge. When you 
go back to the depot, you will find that I left two 
bundles of papers at the news stand, which will 
explain all." 

" Is there anybody else with you in this mat- 
ter?" 

" Not a livine soul. I have contemplated the 
thing for the last six weeks, and would have shot 



670 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



him when he went away with Mrs. Garfield, but I 
looked at her, and she looked so bad, that I 
changed my mind." 

Further light was thrown upon Guiteau by a 
statement from District-Attorney Corkhill, who, 
after a patient investigation, issued the follow- 



ing: 



'-The interest felt by the public in the details of the 
assassination, and the many stories published, justify me in 
stating that the following is a correct and accurate statement 
concerning the points to which reference is made : The 
assassin, Charles Guiteau, came to Washington city on Sunday 
evening, March 6th, 1S81, and stopped at the Ebbitt House, 
remaining only one day. He then secured a room in another 
part of the city, and had boarded and roomed at various 
places, the full details of which I have. On Wednesday, 
May 1 8th, 1881, the assassin determined to murder the Presi- 
dent. He had neither money nor pistol at the time. About 
the last of May he went into O'Meara's store, corner of 
Fifteenth and F Streets, this city, and examined some pistols, 
asking for the largest calibre. He was shown two similar in 
calibre, and only different in the price. On Wednesday, 
June 8th, he purchased a pistol, for which he paid $:o, he 
having, in the meantime, borrowed $15 of a gentleman in this 
city, on the plea that he wanted to pay his board bill. On 
the same evening, about 7 o'clock, lie took the pistol and 
went to the foot of Seventeenth Street, and practiced firing at 
a board, firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding 
place and wiped the pistol dry, and wrapped it in his coat, 
and waited his opportunity. On Sunday morning, June 15th, 
he was sitting in Lafayette Park, and saw the President leave 
for the Christian Church on Vermont Avenue, and he at once 
returned to his room, obtained his pistol, put it in his pocket 
and follov/ed the President to church. He entered the church. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



671 



bfit found he could not kill him there without danger of 
killing some one else. He noticed that the President sat 
near a window. After church he made an examniation of the 
window, and found he could reach it without any trouble, and 
that from this point he could shoot the President through the 
head without killing any one else. The following Wednesday 
'he went to the church, examined the location and the window, 
and became satisfied he could accomplish his purpose. He 
determined to make the attempt at the church the following 
Sunday. Learning from the papers that the President would 
leave the city on Saturday, the i8th of June, with Mrs. Gar- 
field, for Long Branch, he, therefore, decided to meet him at 
the depot. He left his boarding place about 5 o'clock Saturday 
morning, June iSth, and went down to the river at the foot 
of Seventeenth Street, and fired five shots to practice his aim, 
and be certain his pistol was in good order. He then went 
to the depot, and was in the ladies' waiting-room of the 
depot, with his pistol ready, when the presidential party 
entered. He says Mrs. Garfield looked so weak and frail that 
he had not the heart to shoot the President in her presence, 
and, as he knew he would have another opportunity, he X^il 
the depot. He had previously engaged a carriage to take him 
to the jail. On Wednesday evening, the President and his 
son, and, I think, United States Marshal Henry, went out for 
a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed them, and 
watched them for some time, in hopes tlie carriage would 
stop, but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening, 
July ist, he was sitting on the seat in the park opposite the 
White House, Avhen he saw the President come out alone. He 
followed him down the avenue to Fifteenth Street, and then 
kept on the opposite side of the street upon Fifteenth, until 
the President entered the residence of Secretary Blaine. He 
waited at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets for some time, 
and then, as he was afraid he would attract attention, he 
went into the alley in the rear of Mr. Morton's residence, 
examined his pistol and waited. The President and Secretary 



672 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



Blaine came out together, and he followed over to the gate of 
the White House, but could get no opportunity to use his 
weapon. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, he break- 
fasted at the Riggs House about 7 o'clock. He then walked 
up into the park, and sat there for an hour. He then took a 
horse car and rode to Sixth Street, got out and went into the 
depot, and loitered around there; had his shoes blacked; 
engaged a hackman for ;$2 to take him to the jail ; went into 
the water-closet and took his pistol out of his hip-pocket, and 
unwrapped the paper from around it, which he had put there 
for the purpose of preventing the perspiration from the body 
dampening the powder ; examined his pistol ; carefully tried 
the trigger, and then returned and took a seat in the ladies' 
waiting-room, and, as soon as the President entered, advanced 
behind him and fired two shots. 

"These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I 
give them to the public to contradict certain false rumors in 
connection with the most atrocious of atrocious'crimes." 

The pistol used by him was a double-acting five- 
chambered revolver, of 44-100 of an inch calibre, 
known as the "British Bull-dog" pattern. In 
regard to his trial, the Grand Jury for July, in the 
District of -Columbia, were discharged on July 8th, 
the District-Attorney not presenting Guiteau for 
indictment, because of the following letter from 
the White House physicians : 

" Sir: In reply to your inquiry as to the condition of the 
President, we would say that up to the present time he has 
done exceedingly well for one who has received so dangerous 
a wound ; but while we anticipate recovery, it is not yet 
possible to assert with confidence that his injuries may not 
terminate fatally. '' Very respectfully, 

" I). W. Bliss, J. K. Barnes, 

"J. T. Woodward, Rohert Revburn." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5y ^ 

If the President should not die for a year and 
a day, Guiteau, under the common law, cannot be 
tried for murder. 

His crime was, of course — as all particularly 
noticed crimes are — followed by a slight epidemic 
of crime. Several lunatics appeared in Washington 
almost immediately that Guiteau's deed was known, 
and wanted to shoot some one or other, fully bear- 
ing out what President Garfield said a year ago 
concerning himself and attempts on his life : " I 
have always supposed that a man who occupies so 
exalted and powerful position, as does the Presi- 
dent of the United States, must exert a fatal 
fascination over a m.an of morbid mind, who seeks 
his life for revenge or any other motive." 



674 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER 01' 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



THE LESSONS OF THE HOUR. 



^ ¥ "^HERE are always timid men in a nation, 
I men who feel inclined to adopt some 

^■^ temporary, easily suggested device to 
bridge over any disaster. Such device Is usually 
superficial and wanting entirely in adequateness, 
while it too often does more evil in principle than 
it accomplishes good in fact. The terrible crime 
that darkened our land and shadowed to sadness 
our national birth-day, brought naturally to the 
front our timid innovators — those who were ready 
to consent to anything that satisfied their feelings, 
and suaofed their honor, in order that it mieht not 
'* happen again." 

Two propositions emanated from these well- 
meaning citizens, one with reference to Guiteau — 
an expression of national desire ; the other with 
reference to the President — a measure of national 
safety. The first partakes of the nature of re- 
venore. Guiteau's offense under the law is shootinor 
''with intent to kill," punishable Avith eight years' 
imprisonment for a first offense, and with fifteen 
years for a second offense. Insanity, according to 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



675 



the law of the District of Columbia, which follows 
the old English law, cannot be pleaded in defense 
of his crime, because insanity is held not to exist 
where there is premeditation. Guiteau, therefore, 
will be tried for shootincr "with intent to kill." 
Possibly, by a liberal construction of the law, he 
may be sentenced to twenty-three years in the 
penitentiary, the first shot fired at the President 
being counted a first offense, and the second shot 
a second offense. Possibly, also, the court in its 
discretion may make the sentence one of solitary 
confinement. This then, twenty-three years in 
solitary confinement, is the utmost possible, but not 
the probable, penalty that can be meted to Guiteau 
for a crime that made the world shudder. 

How inadequate ! is the prompted thought in the 
reader's mind. That a dastardly villain who sought 
out the life of the beloved chief of fifty millions of 
people, who in cowardly fashion and with cold- 
blooded purpose shot down the liberties of those 
people, should be guarded by even Justice with gen- 
tle hands against the clutches of the masses, should 
be shielded from the vengeance he so richly de- 
served and sentenced only to twenty-three years — 
what a mockery it seems on our sympathy for 
the President, what a travesty upon our love for 
the victim ! And yet, the very inadequacy of 
the law's sentence to satisfy our condemnation of 
the deed should *' give men pause" and recall all 
their senses to deal with the case in exact ac- 



676 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



cordance with our institutions and in strict com- 

pliance with our legal code. 

The proposition has been made, and by even 

so distineuished a man as ex-Senator Conkling-, 

that the law in Guiteau's case be altered in order 

that the punishment may in some slight degree, 

at least, voice the deep horror of the people. This, 

doubdess, would gratify every man, woman and 

child in America, save the isolated wretch wdio has 

won the hatred of each honest human being on 

this globe. Him it would affect by the rapid 

shortening of his life. Greatly as this would 

gratify the people, every man must disapprove of 

any such attempt. The lav/ is the law, and Gui- 

teau must meet the exact measure of his crime as 

there defined, no more, no less. The glory of our 

institutions — the pride of our people, the strength 

of our nation, lies in our o-reat declaration that 

holds 

All men equal before the law. 

Guiteau, in shooting the President, shot only a 
man — who at the moment happened to be our 
President. The lav/ makes no distinction between 
the President and the humblest citizen he rules 
over, except in exemption from arrest for debt. 
And it is well that it is so. Alexander Hamilton, 
when he prepared and presented the germs of the 
Constitution, avoided as far as possible the slight- 
est leaning to imperialism. We should never have 
lived had he not intermingled everywhere, in his 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



677 



life-work, the paramount doctrine of our perfect 
equality. It is not the time now to abandon this 
principle, nor would the President, the chief sufferer 
from the attack, countenance such a move. It is not 
to be thought of for an instant. We may regret 
it, but Guiteau must be sentenced only as the law 
would direct had his assault been committed upon 
the least known citizen of the National Capital. 

The second proposition that has emanated from 
the timid men of the nation does full justice to 
their love for our President, but little credit to 
their belief in our institutions. They would have 
the President surrounded by a body-guard, by men 
able to prevent the approach of lunatics and 
dangerous persons. This proposition should be 
opposed with urgency, as unpatriotic and harmful 
In a land where republicanism has found its ful- 
lest, most noble growth. I remember hearing an 
orator, during a campaign of some years ago, draw 
from his vast audience a cheer, that in intensity, 
spontaneity and heartiness, surpassed anything 
I had ever heard before. The words that brought 
It forth, quick from the hearts of his listeners, were 
those of his reply to a visiting Englishman, who 
expressed strong doubts of the stability of republi- 
can institutions, and asked Vv^hat guarantee there 
existed that these institutions would not soon be 
overthrown. "The guarantee that exists in the 
fact," replied the American, " that the President 
of fifty millions of people sleeps to-night without 



5^3 Z/F^ ASW PUBLIC CAREER OF 

a sin^^le guard! And there is nothing to be 
argued from the present case that should prompt 
us to place a guard about the President. His 
person is safe in the fifty million hearts of his 
people, of those who gladly consented that he 
should rule over them, and who will fly to his 
rescue if there is a dano^er. That something should 
be done to lessen the chances, to prevent almost 
certainly the recurrence of such a deed, I hasten 
to admit. But it should be done by removing the 
causes that gave rise to a state of affairs that 
made Guiteau possible, rather than by attempting 
to prevent another Guiteau from reaching the 
same measure of success as that attained on the 
second of July, this year. It is wiser to remove 
all inclinations to be an assassin than to attempt to 
thwart his blood-thirsty desires. Remove the 
cause of disease rather than attempt remedies to 
check it when it shows itself. To do this, some- 
thing is needed that shall cure the evils bred of the 
spoils system, and the constant elevation of party 
to the inevitable decrradation of countrv. The 
press of the land is unanimous on this point. In- 
deed, the President, possibly discerning disaster 
in the future, called attention to the matter in his 
inaugural address. There he said : 

'•'The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory 
basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the ser- 
vice itself, for the protection of those who are intrusted with 
the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruc- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^^,^g 

tiion of the public business, caused by the inordinate pressure 
for place, and for the protection of incumbents against in- 
trigue and wrong, I shall, at the proper time, ask Congress to 
fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive de- 
partments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals 
shall be made during terms for which incumbents have been 
appointed." 

There can be no question but what the mind 
of the people is made up to brook no delay in 
this matter, and whatever recommendations the 
President shall see fit to make to Concrress in his 
first annual message next December, will doubt- 
less be speedily acted on. Two bills were intro- 
duced into the last Congress dealing with the 
subject of civil service reform. Neither of them 
was pronounced unconstitutional or impractical, 
and yet neither was ever debated, because Con- 
gress supposed the people were not in earnest or 
ripe for this matter. There can be no doubt now. 
The Ohio Democratic Convention has led the way 
with a tenure of ofifice plank in its platform, and 
before another June is here the President will 
undoubtedly be relieved by law from filling the 
100,000 offices at present in his gift. Nominations 
to all the smaller offices should be in charge of the 
heads of those departments under whom the ap- 
pointees will serve, reserving always to the Presi- 
dent the right of veto upon any appointment. 
Tenure of office should be enforced during com- 
petency and good behavior. Such a law would 



^gQ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

relieve the President from being saddled personally 
with the entire debt of the campaign that elected 
him. 

The necessity of this is one of the lessons of 
the hour. Another is that of a more earnest 
chanty, a greater brotherly love, a stronger bond 
of fellowship between political parties, between 
leaders, between men, between each one with his 
nelehbor. Guiteau's bullet, in the mercy of Provi- 
dence, has done more to make us a nation than 
has been accomplished in all the years past since 
1850. There is no longer any South, North, 
East or West. We are all brothers ; all filled 
with a common purpose. There is already a 
warmer feeling, a greater respect among Repub- 
licans for Democrats, a stronger sympathy among 
Democrats for Republicans, a more perfect politi- 
cal charity, a more magnificent brotherhood. 
Were the campaign of last year to be fought over 
again this, the bitterness of it, the disgrace of it, the 
contemptible things of it, could never be reintro- 
duced. Guiteau's bullet will accomplish much to 
better our polidcal life, to make purer our polid- 
cal purposes. And it will do, also, a good deal to 
win respect for that high office which Guiteau's 
victim occupies, the elevation of which has already 
brought to two men the sufferings of the assas- 
sin's purpose. 

That victim is now a crreat saint in American 
story. Before July 2d he had the respect of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. gg j 

most of his -people. To-day there is not one so 
poor as does not homage to his memory For 
there never has been In our history a man who so 
drew together the hearts of the American people. 
As Garfield once said, " one great, generous pas- 
sion stimulates another," so our love for him has 
stimulated the love, charity and good-fellowship 
of the whole American people. 

41 



5g3 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



A 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 

FTER the 25th of July, for several days 
the President seemed once more on the 
road to recovery. The doctors reported 
him as progressing favorably, and people believ- 
ing, as President Garfield had himself said earlier 
in the case, " The heart of the nation won't let the 
old soldier die," had dismissed the question of 
recovery or death as certainly decided in favor of 
recovery. By August 6lh, more unfavorable 
symptoms and a rise in temperature and accele- 
ration of pulse were noticeable. These could not 
be accounted for, except on the supposition that 
another pus cavity was in process of formation 
or had already formed. It had been manifesting 
itself for six days. On August 8th, the surgeons^ 
decided to operate again. In the 10.30 bulletin ol 
that morning, the doctors said: 

" It having become necessary to make a furthei 
opening to facilitate the escape of pus, we took] 
advantage of the Improved condition of the Presi-j 
dent this morning. Shortly after the morning 
bulletin was issued he was etherized. The In-^ 
clsinn extended downward and forward, and a 
counter opening made into the track of die ball 



JAMES A, GARFIELD. gg^ 

below the margin of the twelfth rib, which, It is 
believed, will effect the desired object. He bore 
the operation well, has now recovered from the 
effects of etherization and is in excellent condl- 

tiorL 

The necessity for the operation was apparent to 
the surgeons the day before, when they found 
that a drainage tube of the size hitherto used 
could no longer be passed along the track of the 
ball between the ribs. The process of granula- 
tion at this point had gone on so far as to par- 
tially close the orifice, and the ribs prevented the 
pushing aside of the flesh, which was healing be- 
tween them, enough so that the tube could be 
introduced. The result of this state of things was 
that pus formed In the deeper parts of the wound 
rather faster than It could escape through the 
half-obstructed opening between the ribs, and Its 
o-radual accumulation beoan to cause disturbance. 
It was, therefore, decided to make a new opening 
Into the track of the ball, below the last rib, so 
that the ribs should no longer prevent the keeping 
open of the wound by the solid backing which they 
afforded to the ei*a.nulatinor flesh between them. 
The operation was performed, at the request of 
the other surgeons, by Dr. Agnew. As soon as 
the patient had been put under the influence of 
ether, a long and slightly-curved instrument was 
introduced Into the wound, pushed between the 
ribs and carried downward along the track of the 



534 X//^£" AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 

bullet until its end could be felt below the last rib 
from the outside. Holdingf this instrufment in the 
wound as a oruide, Dr. Ao^new tlien made a coun- 
ter incision below the twelfth rib, cutting directly 
throuorh the integument until his knife met the end 
of the first-mentioned instrument at the point 
where he wished to intersect the track of the ball. 
The operation was not a difficult or dangerous 
one, and the patient bore both it and the etheriza- 
tion extremely well. 

Then again there were perceptible signs of re- 
covery, some steps toward the dawning of certain 
health. The doctors spoke hopefully, indeed en- 
couragingly, and the old confidence of the people, 
that the Lord would save their beloved President, 
returned in full force. On the 12th, feeling 
somewhat brighter, with exceeding difficulty the 
President wrote a letter to his aged mother, a few 
sentences of cheer and hope. 

By the 15th, it was all changed again. Once 
more a waiting, praying nation was plunged in 
despair. The President had entered the Valley 
of the Shadow of Death. The symptoms of his 
case were aggravated, nausea had set in, the 
stomach refused to hold its food. Hypodermic 
injections of morphine were administered. The 
vomiting was very debilitating in its effects and 
if long continued threatened most serious if not 
fatal consequences. All day on the 15th the 
prospect was dark and dreary. The only nourish- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 53^ 

ment given was by food injections, an always 
precarious method of sustaining life. By the 
1 7th he had in his own miraculous way rallied a 
little, an improvement that was pronounced the 
next day. The surgeons agreed that the stomach 
had not been sufficiently looked after, and that it 
was necessary to pay more attention to diet. And*- 
yet though the patient was undeniably better, still 
it was hard to believe he was very much better. 
Death seemed so near him, disputing every effort 
to win him back to health. 

Two days later another complication became 
apparent. The right parotid gland (situated in 
the face just forward of the ear), began to swell. 
At first nothing was thought of it, and the surgeons 
did not see in it any cause for apprehension. 
One of the doctors thus described the patient's 
condition on the evening of the 2 2d: "The Presi- 
dent to-night is somewhat better, but the improve- 
ment is relative, and scarcely means more than 
that he is no worse. With a single important ex- 
ception, the signs of improvement are of a nega- 
tive character. The important exception is the 
stomach. During the day the President has been 
able to take and to retain a considerable quantity, 
twenty-two ounces, of liquid nourishment with- 
out any uneasiness or any recurrence of vomiting 
or nausea. The indication is a good one in that it 
shows that the stomach has not altogether failed 
him; that it is beginning to resume its functions. 



686 



LI IE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



and that, so far as they dare try it, It has assimi- 
lated a small quantity of very delicate nourish- 
ment. Of course this scantily nutritious fluid has 
not done much to giv^e strength to the patient. It 
lias served little purpose, except to show that 
there is hope that the stomach may regain its 
tone and do the work of building up that is essen- 
tial to the recovery of the patient." 

The general public felt no more sanguine of 
the result on the 25th than on the day preceding. 
Dr. Agnew, the senior consulting surgeon, how- 
ever, spoke hopefully. The public, he said, had 
been led within a day or two to magnify the new 
danger the President was in, and to fear a sudden 
change for the worse, which the physicians had 
not looked for. It was equally true that many 
people had hardly realized before now that the 
President was very badly wounded, and that the 
Injury might, almost at any time, have caused his 
death. It was only within a short time that the 
wound had passed its most aggravated stage, a 
stage which was inevitably attended with great 
weakness and debility, followed by a period of al- 
most complete prostration. It is necessary for a 
patient so wounded to reach the bottom of the 
ladder before he beo-ins to ascend it ao^aln to the 
high ground of restored health. That period of 
complete prostration through which he Is passing 
was complicated by the failure of the stomach. 
That has been partially restored to strength, and 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 53^ 

now it is a question of the staying powers of the 
President and of his recuperative forces whether 
he shall advance toward convalescence. 

The extreme weakness was to be accounted for 
by the stomachic trouble and septicaemia. The 
amputation of a limb is followed by a sort of 
wound fever, which is sometimes called surgeon's 
fever. The President's wound has caused this 
same continued low fever, which the whole system 
is fiehtine acrainst, and which will decrease if the 
stomach continues to receive necessary nourish- 
ment. There were no traces of malaria at the 
White House, nor could he fmd that any one who 
had ever lived near the Executive Mansion had 
been affected with it in the past. The sick-room 
was perfectly comfortable and healthy. The tem- 
perature could be reduced almost to any degree 
by the refrigerator apparatus, and the chamber 
where the President lies was by far the most com- 
fortable place that he had been in at all. It might 
become necessary to open an abscess if the inflam- 
mation developed to that point, but it would hardly 
be called an operation. The soreness came from 
the impoverished condition of the blood, but the 
danger of the present inflammation from that 
cause had been magnified by unofficial dispatches. 

In spite of these encouraging opinions, the 
public pulse was very low. The poor President 
suffering as he did, did not seem to be progress- 
ing. And all the time the black figure of death 



688 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



kept his silent place among the watchers In the 
sick-room. The fears of the people were based 
largely upon the pulse temperature and respira- 
tion, all of which, had been growing steadily- 
worse since the 13th, as the following table will 
show: 



Pulse. 



Temperature. Respiration. 



e 

o 



• 


> 


a 







u 





> 


^ 


W 



s 
o 



o 
o 



> 



o 



G 

o 
o 



>• 



Saturday, 13 . . . 


. 104 


102 


104 


100.8 


99.2 


Sunday, 14 . . . 


. ICXD 


96 


108 


99.8 


99-3 


Monday, 15 . . . 


. 108 


118 


130 


100.2 


99.0 


Tuesday, 16 . . . 


. IIO 


114 


120 


98.6 


98.3 


Wednesday, 17 . . 


. no 


112 


112 


98.3 


98.7 


Thursday, 18 . . . 


. 104 


108 


108 


98.8 


98.4 


Friday, 19 . . . . 


. 100 


106 


106 


98.4 


98.8* 


Saturday, 20 . . . 


. 98 


107 


no 


98.4 


98.4 


Sunday, 21 . . . 


. . 106 


108 


108 


98.8 


99-4 


Monday, 22 . . 


. 104 


104 


no 


98.4 


98.4 


Tuesday, 23 . . . 


. 100 


104 


104 


98.4 


98.9 


Wednesday, 24 , 


. . 100 


104 


108 


98.5 


99.2 


r-i-»t • . 


• 


. 1 




^ 


•1 1 



100.7 


19 


18 


19 


100.8 


18 


18 


19 


99.6 


20 


19 


22 


98.9 


18 


18 


19 


98.8 


18 


18 


18 


lOO.O 


17 


18 


18 


> lOO.O 


17 


17 


18 


100.4 


18 


18 


19 


99.2 


18 


18 


18 


lOO.I 


18 


18 


19 


99.2 


18 


18 


19 


100.7 


17 


17 


19 



The situation was thus described by one of the 
watchers at the bed-side on the evening of 
the 25 th. 

"The long and painfully anxious watching for 
sure and permanent signs of convalescence, and 
the several discouragements caused by relapses, 
have made the public extremely nervous, and 
have had an effect upon the President's surgeons 
and attendants. These discouragements, how- 
ever, have not destroyed their confidence In re- 
covery, but naturally make them regard each new 
feature of the case with Increased apprehension. 
The Inflamed gland is now the chief object of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 53^ 

solicitude. There was no material change in it 
to-day. There was some litde discharge of 
pus, but litde subsidence of swelling. The fact 
that the gland is not improved, compared with 
yesterday, and does not give indications of yield- 
ing to treatment, has no significance at this stage, 
for the reason that the affection has not had time 
to reach maturity or that point when the force 
will be expanded and where it will break up, to 
the benefit or injury of the patient. It is true 
that the gland is not doing as well as the surgeons 
would like, but nothing in addition to what is now 
being done can be devised to hasten its action. 
What will be the effect of its culmination on the 
President's case is not known and cannot be con- 
jectured with certainty, but everything known to 
the surgeons will be done to prevent it from pro- 
ducing serious damage. It will require two or 
three days for the swollen gland to reach that 
stao-e where it can be decided with certainty what 
will be the result, and in the meandme, as previ- 
ously explained in these dispatches, high pulse 
and temperature may be looked for. All other 
features of the case are favorable and of minor 
importance. The wound is causing no trouble 
whatever, and if that was the sole feature the 
President's recovery could be assured. The 
stomach condnues to improve, and sufficient quan- 
dties of liquid nourishment are being administered 
to supply the wastage of tissue and have a surplus 



690 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



to repair the general debility of the system. This 
continued steadfastness and improvement of the 
stomach is the one orreat cause for encouraci:e- 
ment in the case, and If it is maintained, the sur- 
geons believe that, unless the afflicted gland 
should seriously interfere by developments that 
are possible, the President will be sustained 
through the period of prostration arising from the 
septic taint of the blood, and that he will ultimately 
recover. 

" Measured by the figures contained In the official 
bulletin, the day cannot be considered as favorable, 
and, on the other hand, it may be considered as a 
favorable day if for the patient to hold his own be 
regarded as a good indication. The pulse was a 
few beats higher than yesterday, but the tempera- 
ture was at 7 o'clock to-night one degree lower 
than at the same hour last night. The slight fre- 
quency In pulse over yesterday is unimportant and 
without significance, while the decrease of 1° in 
temperature, which was nearly 101° last night. Is 
regarded as a favorable indication by the surgeons, 
particularly In view of the irritation of the Inflamed 
gland. It is apparent, however, notwithstanding 
the fact that the President seems to be holding 
his ovv^n In the terrible struggle In which he Is now 
engaged, that the prevalent feeling is one of un- 
certainty, and this feeling is attributable mainly to 
the apprehension entertained as to the termina- 
tion of the gJandular trouble and the effect It may 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^gj 

have on the wasted and debilitated patient. 
To-night the President is reported to be resting 
very well, with less frequency of pulse and lower 
temperature than when the evening bulletin was 
issued." 

Friday he was worse ; and, as he seemed sink- 
ing, slowly yet so surely, that no mortal hand could 
save, the people gave up all hope. The physi- 
cians on Friday night gave him up. Only Mrs. 
Garfield continued to believe he would get well. 
But it was certain that nothing stood between 
him and death except the prayers of the people. 
And how the nation prayed ! It was a wonderful 
fact. They prayed as never people prayed before. 
And it pleased the Greater Magistrate to lend a 
heeding ear. Saturday morning there came a 
change for the better; Sunday and Monday it 
was maintained, and by Wednesday, hope was 
fully restored to a praying people, that the Presi- 
dent was once more out of the Valley of the 
Shadow of Death. 

By Wednesday, the nation realized that prayer 
alone had been the means of brineinof the Presi- 
dent out of the death weakness that had settled 
upon him. Science had given him up, prayer had 
saved him. And glad indeed were the people. 
It was, however, recognized that the beloved suf- 
ferer was still in a most precarious condition, and 
that to pull him through the dangers that still be- 
set his path to recovery, he must be taken away 



692 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



from Washington. At the National Capital he 
never could recover. The malarial influences of 
the Potomac flats were growing daily in virulence, 
and threatening to complete quickly what the as- 
sassin had attempted. Consultations were entered 
Into by the doctors, and it was decided to remove 
him, as soon as he was able to stand it, to some 
northern place, where he could have the benfit of 
a sea breeze. Pure and invio^oratinor Lonor Branch 
was unanimously chosen, and it had no sooner 
been definitely selected than the preparations for 
the removal be^^an. 

By Monday night, September 5th, everything 
was in readiness. He was to be taken from 
Washington the next morninof. Was he ever to 
return ? Ah, that was a question. And the an- 
swer was with Divine Providence. 

Early on the morning of the 6th, the indications 
around the White House pointed out that some- 
thing unusual was about to happen. By 4.45 it 
beean to erow lic:ht, and the crowd that had lin- 
gered at the gates all night had swollen into a 
multitude of silent, anxious spectators. The 
carriages that were to convey the Presidential 
party to the train filed in and took their places 
before the White House doors. Just before the 
sunrise gun announced the dawn of day, the 
removal was effected. The President had slept 
well, and was amply prepared. He was, indeed, 
anxious to be off. The removal was begun by 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5g , 

carrying the bed on which the President lay from 
the room into the hall, and moving it along to the 
glass doors, which cut off the long hall running 
east and west from the balcony at the head of the 
main stairs along to the office. When ready to 
be started down the stairs and out into the 
balcony, the mattress on which he lay was placed 
upon a litter, which had been constructed at the 
Government shops, and taken up-stairs the even- 
ing before. The mattress consisted of a rubber 
bag filled with water, and had been placed under 
him in the usual way by raising him upon the 
sheets, as had been done every morning at the 
change of the bed and clothing. The litter was 
so constructed, that when he was placed upon it 
and carried down the main stairway into the 
lower hall, it maintained a horizontal position as 
they proceeded. From the foot of the stairs to 
the wide doorway was but a few seconds' journey, 
and the worst of the trip, as far as the White 
House was concerned, was over. When the 
President was almost down-stairs, the family 
hastily entered the carriages to precede the 
wagon bearing the wounded man to the depot. 

In the first carriage that led the mournful pro- 
cession to the depot rode Mrs. Garfield, Miss. 
MolHe Garfield, Mrs. Edson and a female attendant. 
In the next carriage came the servants, and then 
others of the party. No sooner had these driven 
away than Drs. Agnew and Reyburn came out on 



694 



LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF 



the portico to see if all was well. The final survey 
was satisfactory, and a moment later the party 
bearing the litter appeared in the doorway, carry- 
ino;- what looked like a bier covered with a white 
sheet. It was the President released at last. He 
was carried by Dr. Boynton, Colonel Rockwell, 
Dr. Bliss, General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell's i 
brother. It took but a moment to place the litter 
on the spring platform arranged for its reception. 
Colonel Rockwell oruided the burden at the head 

o 

and the stalwart form of Colonel Corbin steadied 
it at the foot. "Easy," said Corbin. "There; 
now let it down," and without a jar or quiver all ^ 
was arranged. The bed of the wagon w^as wide 
enough to allow the litter-bearers to sit on the 
edge of the boards, and they took their places 
within the vehicle. Colonel Rockwell sat at the 
right side of the President, near the head, and 
fanned him gently to keep away the flies. Next on 
the right side sat Dr. Bliss, and at the foot stood 
Colonel Corbin and Warren Young, one of the 
Executive Clerks. At the left of the patient's 
head sat Dr. Boynton, and next to him the ever- 
faithful Swaim. 

Then the horses were attached and the wagon 
moved slovvdy, gently, between two lines of rev- 
erent, hatless, silent people, who had gathered to 
show their profound respect. The station was 
reached, and without accident the patient Presi- 
dent was transferred to the special car that had 



JAMES A. GARFIEL3. 



^95 



been prepared by the thoughtfulness of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company. Then the train 
started on its most memorable trip. First came 
the engine No. 628, with Engineer Page in charge, 
then the President's car, then. Colonel Scott's pri- 
vate car. Without a sound, as gently as one 
could step away, the train, with its precious bur- 
den, at 6.46, A. M., started away for Long Branch. 
The schedule of the run, which will live in our 
history for all time, was as follows : 



Distance. 



5 

9 
12 

17 

24 

'>'7 
'-I 

34 

37 
40 
42 
46 

57 
60 

68 

73 
78 
79 

94 
100 

106 
112 



Stations. Tim*. 

Washington 6.46 A. M. 

Benning's 6.56 " 

Wilson's 7.04 '* 

Seabrook 7.1 1 " 

Bowie 7.18 " 

Odenton 7.29 " 

Severn 7.34 " 

Winans 7.48 " 

St. Agnes 7.54 " 

Fulton Junction 7.59 " 

Baltimore (Charles Street) 8.02 " 

*Bay View, arrived 8.10 " 

Departed 8.22 " 

Chase's Z.^ " 

Magnolia 8.40 " 

Ferryman's 8.49 " 

Aberdeen 8.54 " 

Havre-de-Grace 8.59 " 

Perryville 9.09 " 

Northeast 9.22 " 

Elkton 9.31 " 

Newark 9.39 " 

Stanton 9.46 " 

Wilmington . " 9.5S " 

* Stopped to dress the President's wound. 



5^6 ^^^^ ^^-^ PUBLIC CAREER OF 

Distance. Stations. Tim«. 

117 . . . . Bellevue 10.03 A. M. 

125 .... *Lamokin, arrived 10.12 " 

Departed 10.21 '* 

126 .... Chester 10.25 '* 

130 .... Moore's 10.30 " 

134 .... Paschall 10.35 " 

137 ... . Gray's Ferry 10.39 " 

139 .... West Philadelphia IO.52 " 

140 .... Mantua lo.^8 " 

145 .... North Penn Junction 11.05 " 

147 .... Frankford Junction II.08 *• 

150 .... Tacony II.14 « 

156 .... Cornwell 11. 19 '* 

159 . . • • Schenck's 11.26 ** 

165 .... fTullytown 11.38 " 

170 . . . . Morrisville 11.47 " 

172 ... . Trenton 11.48^ " 

181 .... Princeton Junction 11-59 " 

187 .... Monmouth Junction 12.07 P« M. 

189 .... Dayton 12.10 " 

192 .... Jamesburg 12.14 " 

204 .... Freehold 12.28 " 

212 .... Farmingdale 12. ■?7 " 

220 .... Sea Girt 12.48 " 

233 .... Elberton Station (Long Branch) 1.09 « 

233X • • • Francklyn Cottage 1.20 " 



The cottage selected for the President's use is 
that owned by Mr. C. G. Franklyn, hardly a hun- 
dred yards from the sea. When he was placed In 
his room, fronting the ocean, his pulse was 102, 
when he left Washington It was 1 14, showing that 
he had stood the journey extremely well. Indeed, 
the people felt that he had only to get to the sea- 
side to start on his way to recovery. During the 
day, prayers were offered in many States, and In 



* Stopped for coal and water. 



t Stopped for "water. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



697 



hundreds of churches, by proclamation of the dif- 
ferent Governors, upon Gov. Hoyt's initiative. 
Thousands upon thousands knelt in suppHcation 
to the Almighty as the President was borne along 
on the wings of prayer to the haven where he 
would be. Wednesday morning the first bulletin 
for the day seemed indeed a justification of the 
people's hopes and prayers. The President had 
slept well, taken his nourishment successfully, his 
fever had left him, and the fatigue of his journey 
had disappeared under the influences of the breeze 
that swept from the Atlantic's waves to the suf- 
ferer's room. 



42 



698 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER XLV. 



THE AGONY ENDED. 



THE eyes of all the world bent upon Long 
Branch discovered soon that there was 
something wrong. The physicians stated 
from day to day that there was no change in the 
patient's condition, a statement that could only 
mean that he was getting worse ; and for him not 
to ofain in his condition indicated the worst. The 
distrust of the official bulletins had o-rown stronger 
with each day. Everything the doctors did was 
discredited, everything they said doubted. For 
evidence of a stronof and dismal character was 
rapidly accumulating. The President's cheerful- 
ness had given way; he had no more courage left. 
Disease had draofofed It from him durinof the eleven 
weary weeks he had lain prostrated upon the bed 
of pain. During the early hours of the morning 
of the 15th, he plaintively called to his attendant, 
" Save me ; don't let me sink !" A cry of agony. 
The pulse had touched, during the night, 120. 
The lung trouble, formally announced on the 12th, 
was Increasing. The next day, Tuesday, there 
was a rally, and the President sat In a reclining 
chair for some time. On Thursday, however, his 
condition was somewhat worse, and on Friday this 



A CRY OF FAIN. 



699 



was admitted. He was weaker both in body and 
mind and a crisis was announced as approaching. 
Saturday, the beginning of the twelfth week of 
the President's agony, was another critical day. 
He had a chill shortly before noon, when his pulse 
ran up to 137. Subsequently he rallied and 
passed a comparatively comfortable night. Sun- 
day was apparently a more comfortable day up to. 
the hour of the eveninof dressing^ of the wound, 
when his pulse was 102. Shortly after, however, 
he had another chill, lasting ten or fifteen minutes. 
It was short, sharp and severe, according to Dr. 
Bliss, though not as bad as that on Saturday. 
When it passed off he fell into a quiet slumber, 
and though the apprehensions of those around 
him had perceptibly deepened, there was nothing 
to warrant a speedily fatal result. 

Monday morning it was admitted that all hope 

was over. During the morning dressing of the 

wound another violent chill came on, and the 

pulse leaped to 143. The surgeons admitted that 

there was no hope for a change for the better, and 

i poor Mrs. Garfield, for the first time in all these 

[weary weeks, felt that hope had fled her heart 

jand its place was taken by grim despair. In 

spite of all the discouraging symptoms, however, 

I such was the sufferer's extraordinary vitality, that 

:he rallied somewhat, and the afternoon passed 

with no further chills or other bad features, and 

by 9.30 P. M. he was sleeping quietly. This was, 

\ 



yQQ THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

however, but the pause before the final act of the 
President's life. 

Some of the incidents of this — his last day on 
earth — should be told here. The day opened 
gloomily at Elberon. The night had been one of 
comparative comfort, and at daybreak the physi- 
cians thought the President was a little better. He 
seemed to have some appetite and no indications 
of an approaching chill were noted. The insidious 
nature of these attacks was again made manifest 
soon after 8 o'clock. The President had been 
very quiet and seemingly comfortable. Suddenly 
he complained of chilliness. His body was wrapped 
in warm flannels, and he was sponged with 
hot alcohol, but the rigor could not be averted. 
He shivered, and every muscle in his body was 
rigid. The pulse went up to 140 and even higher, 
but It was so thready and feeble that it was im- 
possible to count the beats after they had passed 
that figure. There was great danger that he 
would sink into a comatose state after the rigor 
had passed, and every exertion was made to in- 
duce reaction. Hot flannels were applied to the 
feet, and a poultice of raw onions cut fine and 
steeped In alcohol was placed upon his stomach. 
In addition, cooling lotions were applied to the 
head, and the arms and limbs were rubbed vigor- 
ously. The result was that a reaction was estab- 
lished much sooner than the physicians expected. 
After fifteen minutes had elapsed Dr. Bliss noticed 



\ 



i 



i 



i 



AN A CCIDENT. jq j 

increasinor warmth In the feet and at the same time 
the rigidity of the muscles was observed to be re- 
laxing. It was evident that the rigor was passing 
away in about half the time which the first one 
had lasted. That one, in spite of the most vigorous 
treatment, had only yielded after half an hour. 

The vitality of the President once more aston- 
ished the physicians. Dr. Agnew said, when he 
came from the sick chamber, " The vitality of die 
President is something more remarkable than I 
have ever met with in all my practice." This was 
said to Mrs. Garfield and Private Secretary Brown. 
The doctor added that if it was not for this won- 
derful evidence of constitutional strength he should 
feel as though it were folly to cherish any hope. 

After the rigor had passed the President fell 
asleep, and although his pulse was still beating 
about 1 20, yet his temperature had not decreased 
more than a tenth of a degree or so below the 
normal point. He awoke in about twenty minutes, 
and said to Dr. Bliss, '' Doctor, I feel very com- 
fortable, but I also feel dreadfully weak. I wish 
you would give me the hand glass and let me look 
at myself." 

General Swaim said : '* Oh, no. Don't do that, 
General. See if you cannot get some sleep." 

"I want to see myself," the President replied. 

Mrs. Garfield then gave him the hand glass. He 
held it in a posidon which enabled him to see his 
face. Mrs. Garfield, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Agnew, Gene- 



702 ^-^^^ ^^^^ ^^ PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 

ral Swaim and Dr. Boynton stood around the bed, 
saying not a word, but looking at the President. 
He studied the reflection of his own features. At 
length he wearily let the glass fall upon the coun- 
terpane, and, with a sigh, said to Mrs. Garfield : 
*' Crete, I do not see how it is that a man who 
looks as well as I do should be so dreadfully 
weak." 

In a moment or two he asked for his daughter 
Mollie. They told him that she would come to see 
him later in the day. He said, however, that he 
wanted to see her at once. Thereupon Don Rock- 
well went to the beach, where Miss Mollie was sit- 
ting: with Miss Rockwell, and told her that her father 
wanted to see her. When the child went into the 
room she kissed her father and told him that she 
was elad to see that he was lookino^ so much bet- 
ten He said, " You think I do look better, Mol- 
lie ?" She said, " I do, papa," and then she took a 
chair and sat near the foot of the bed. A mo- 
ment or two after Dr. Boynton noticed that she 
was swaying in the chair. He stepped up to her, 
but before he could reach her she had fallen 
over in a dead faint. In falling, her face struck 
against the bed-post, and when they raised her 
from the floor she was not only unconscious but 
also bleedinor from the contusion she had received. 
They carried her out where she could get the fresh 
breeze from the ocean, and after restoratives were 
applied, she speedily recovered. The room was 



NO CHANGE. ^q^ 

close, the windows were closed, and Miss Mollle 
has not been very well, and all these causes, com- 
bined with anxiety, induced the fainting fit. The 
President, they thought, had not noticed what had 
happened to his petted child, for he seemed to 
have sunk into the stupor which has characterized 
his condition much of the time. But when Dr. 
Boynton came back into the room he was aston- 
ished to hear the President say : "Poor little Mol- 
lie! She fell over like a log. What was the 
matter?" They assured the President that the 
fainting fit was caused by the closeness of the 
room, and that she was quite restored. He again 
sank into a stupor, or sleep, which lasted until 
the noon examination. This stupor was not 
healthy sleep. The President frequently muttered 
and rolled and tossed his head upon the pillow. 

Dr. Agnew came from the cottage at about 1 1 
o'clock, and when he reached the veranda of the 
Elberon he lound a gentleman with a personal 
note from General Grant. The ex-President had 
been to Elberon earlier in the morning at the time 
of the rigor and had been unable to see any of 
the physicians. As he came back across the lawn 
a personal friend met him and asked him if he 
had heard any news. He said that he had just 
seen Mrs. Garfield for a moment, she having come 
down from the sick chamber to speak to him, and 
that she had said that General Garfield had been 
seized with another rigor, and that she was very 



704 ^-^^ ^^^^ ^^ PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

much afraid that the benefit which they had ob- 
served for the first two or three days after his 
arrival was not permanent. General Grant added 
that the indications at the cottage were such as to 
give very slight hopes, and that he should not go 
away, even to New York, until he had heard more 
favorable news. 

After the noon examination there was very little 
change in the President's condition, except that It 
was noticed that there was mental confusion. At 
the same time the President was doing so well, 
comparatively, that the physicians entertained a 
slight hope that the evening, and possibly the 
night, would pass without any recurrence of rigors. 

No better picture of peace could have been 
imagined than that which was seen from the 
President's cottage during the hours of the terri- 
ble morning. The wind of the last few days had 
died away. The waves were rolling against the 
bluffs more gently. The horizon was dotted with 
the sail of vessels starting out to sea after the 
storm. The air, which it was hoped would drive 
the fatal poison from the President's blood, moved 
in a gentle breeze about the Francklyn cottage. 
But neither medicine nor sea air had the power to 
give new strength to the suffering President. 

Mrs. Garfield -sat for a part of the day at the 
window. Her face was pale and pinched, but it 
was full of strength and resignation. She had 
been told of the doctor's fears, and she was pre.- 



NO CHANGE. y^^ 

pared for the worst. A member of the household 
during these anxious morning hours sat in front 
of the cottage. He was rebeUious at the fate that 
seemed impending. As he looked gloomily be- 
fore the sea he said : " All life-giving conditions 
seem to be here — pure air, bright skies, kind 
friends — yet they seem to be of no avail. All that 
medicine can do has been done. There is not a 
radonal hope. He has a faithful home circle, 
faithful attendants, and a faithful country. One 
moment we feel disposed to rend Guiteau, at an- 
other we remember that that miserable life could 
not help the poor President." 

" Has he been told his own condidon ?" was 
asked. 

" He does not need to be told. He knows It 
well, and has for weeks, but he says little about 
it. He knew It when he took the hand elass this 
morning." 

A lltde after 9 P. M., Dr. Bliss entered the sick 
room and found Mrs. Garfield alone with her hus- 
band. He asked how he was, and Mrs. Garfield 
replied that he appeared to be comfortable. "Just 
before he fell asleep," she said, " he told me he 
felt quite easy. He did not cough much and did 
not have much difficulty spitting out what came 
into his throat." Dr. Bliss timed the President's 
pulse, which was 106. A minute later he awoke, 
and Dr. Bliss asked him : " General, how do you 
feel now?" 



7o6 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



" Pretty well." 

" Do you fell any discomfort anywhere ?'* 

" No." And he dozed off to sleep. 

General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell came In 
to beein the ni^ht watch and Dr. Bliss left. Mrs. 
Garfield also retired to her room. 

Not many minutes after, the wear}^ sufferer 
woke and said sadly : " O Swalm, there Is a 
pain here !" and he put his hand upon his 
heart. 

General Swalm stooped over the patient to do 
something, when he spoke again : 

"Oh! oh! Swalm." 

The name which began so strong on his lips 
died Into a death-whisper before It was finished. 

Dr. Bliss coming In at this moment recognized 
the seal of death had been set. Sending hurriedly 
the famjly and physicians were sum.moned. Mrs. 
Garfield was the first to arrive. By the side of 
the unconscious dying man she knelt, his hand in 
hers, just In the old loving way of years ago, over 
which her tears fell fast. Around the bedside 
with overflowing hearts were Dr. Bliss, Dr, Agnew, 
Colonel Rockwell, General Swalm, Mrs. Rockwell, 
Miss Rockwell and Private Secretary Brown. 
Miss Mollle Garfield was beside her mother, con- 
vulsed with a great passionate grief. 

The doctors attempted to revive the dying man 
but to no use. Though unable to feel the pulsa- 
tions of his heart, It could be heard. With his 



1 



THE SAD NEWS. 



707 



eyes open, but greatly extended, and his body 
stretched, he died. Death, that had sat a silent, 
patient watcher by his bedside, arose, passed be- 
tween the weeping, powerless mortals who had 
for we^ks defied him, and wrapping the black 
winding sheet about the life of the beloved Presi- 
dent, bore him in triumph away. 

This was at 10.35 P- ^'^•' Monday, September 
19th, 1 88 1. And so closed the saddest story in 
the history of the American nation. 

Slowly, as If It was not possible to realize the 
awful calamity just visited upon a sorrowing peo- 
ple, the witnesses of the death passed out and 
gave the news to the world beyond. On the 
wings of the lightning It spread north, east, south, 
west ; It flashed Its pregnant way, leaving a broad 
track of universal gloom. Never was message so 
bitter, so hard, so sad. No one could realize that 
the President was dead that the bright face, the 
brave words of James Abram Garfield should be 
seen and heard no more. Death had taken the 
most shining mark in all this great Republic. 

The sad news winged Its way westward only to 
carry grief Into every household. The dead 
President's mother was at the home of her son-in- 
law at Solon. The family had retired to rest with 
but little hope. Very early in the morning a mes- 
senger appeared with the fatal news. Mother Gar- 
field was not awake, and It was at once concluded 
to wait until she had arisen and taken her breakfast 






7o8 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



before telling her that her boy, the pride of hei 
life, had gone home to his Maker. The rest of the 
relatives were informed and then the query arose, 
" Who will break the news to mother ?" Mrs. 
Larabee's sister, Mary, was finally chosen to impart 
the sad tidings, but her heart failed her. About 8 
o'clock Mrs. Garfield arose, and after dressing, 
spent some time in reading her Bible, as is her 
custom. Then she went into the dining-room, 
where her breakfast was ready. Refreshed by a 
night of rest she was more cheerful than she had 
been for several days. Mr. Larabee, unable to 
conceal his emotion, left the room. Finally the 
old lady turned to her daughter, Mary, saying: 

" Is there any news yet this morning, Mary ?" 

Mrs. Larabee's heart failed. She could not blast 
the hopes expressed in that voice and exhibited in 
that dear old face. 

" Eat your breakfast, mother," she said. 

" But I want to hear from my James first," said 
the loving mother. 

The telegram that was so soon to bring grief 
and anguish to her hopeful mother lay on the 
shelf, and seeing it, she took it and was about to 
read It, saying : " Here it is now. I must read it 
before I eat." Her eranddauehter, Ellen Larabee, 
fearine that so sudden a shock would be fatal, took 
the dispatch from her hand and said : 

'' I will read it to you, grandma. Are you pre- 
pared for — for — bad news ?" 



THE MOTHER'S SORROW. 



709 



" Why, no," said grandma ; " I am not prepared 
for bad news, and diere isn't any bad news this 
morning, is there ?" 

" Yes, grandma." 

" O Nellie, he is not — he cannot be dead ?" 

" Grandma, his spirit passed away last night." 

" Oh, it cannot be. It must not be. I cannot 
have it so. My James, my James dead. No, I 
cannot believe you ; let me see the dispatch." 

She read it, and then that grand old heart broke. 
Dropping the white paper, which fell to the floor, 
its terrible mission performed, she fell backwards 
into a chair, moaning and wringing her hands, 
while the bitter tears coursed down her pale 
cheeks. There was an agony that speech cannot 
express or pen portray, a mother in Israel weeping 
for her son, who was not, and refused to be com- 
forted. The boy who had been her hope and 
pride, the idol of her heart, was dead. 

" To-morrow I will be 80 years old, but I will 
not see the beginning of another year. James 
has gone, and I shall not be long after him." 

But hours of Pfrief have their duties no less than 
the hours of joy. Those at the head of the gov- 
ernment immediately took steps to see that the 
government continued in the regular way. At 
12.25 A- M-' Tuesday morning, Attorney-General 
MacVeaeh sent to Vice-President Arthur the fol- 
lowing dispatch, Secretaries Blaine and Lincoln 
being absent: 



^ J Q THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President 
Garfield, and to advise you to take the oath of office as President of the 
United States without delay. If it concurs with your judgment, we will be 
very glad if you will come here on the earliest train to-morrow morning. 

William Windom, Thomas L. James, 

Secretary of the Treasury. Postmaster-General. 

W. H. Hunt, Wayne MacVeagh, 

Secretary of the Navy. - Attorney-General. 

S. J. KiRKWOOD, Secretary of the Interior. 

The Vice-President returned this answer : 

New York, September 19th. 
Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, Attoj-ney-General, Long Branch : I have 
your telegram, and the intelligence fills me with profound sorrow. Express 
to Mrs. Garfield my deepest sympathies. Chester A. Arthur. 

Mr. Arthur then sent messages requesting their 
presence — in accordance with a dispatch from the 
Cabinet — to the different Judges of the Supreme 
Court present in New York. The first to arrive 
was Judge John R. Brady, closely followed by 
Judge Donahue. The party, comprising the Vice- 
President and the Judges named, District Attor- 
ney Rollins, Elihu Root and the eldest son of 
President Arthur, assembled in the front parlor of 
Mr. Arthur's residence, and the oath of office was 
then administered. 

This brief, significant ceremony took place at 
five minutes after two on the morning of Septem- 
ber 20th. The country had again a President, 
and the government Its constitutional head. And 
so the eventful, sorrow-burdened night closed in 
a morning that was all gloom for fifty millions of 
freemen. 



THE OFFICIAL AUTOPSY, 



711 



The next day the official autopsy took place. 

This autopsy is the final official bulletin In this 
awful history. To the corps of doctors who had 
been in attendance on the wounded man were 
added, for this event, Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of El- 
beron, and Acting Assistant Surgeon D. S. Lamb, 
of the Army Medical Museum, at Washington. 
The operation was performed by Dr. Lamb, and 
these gentlemen then signed the following report: 

" It was found that the ball, after fracturing the 
right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal 
column In front of the spinal canal, fracturing the 
body of the first lumbar vertebra, driving a num- 
ber of small fragments of bone Into the adjacent 
soft parts and lodging below the pancreas, about 
two inches and a half to the left of the spine, and 
behind the peritoneum, where it had become com- 
pletely encysted. 

" The immediate cause of death was secondary 
hemorrhaofe from one of the mesenteric arteries 
adjoining the track of the ball, the blood ruptur- 
ing the peritoneum, and nearly a pint escaping 
Into the abdominal cavity. This hemorrhage Is 
believed to have been the cause of the severe pain 
in the lower part of the chest, complained of just 
1)efore death. 

"An abscess cavity, six Inches by four in dimen- 
sions was found In the vicinity of the gall bladder, 
between the liver and the transverse colon, which 
were strongly adherent. It did not Involve the 



712 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



substance of the liver, and no communication was 
found between it and the wound. A long suppu- 
ratlnor channel extended from the external wound 
between the loin muscles and the right kidney 
almost to the right groin. 

'' This channel, now known to be due to the bur- 
rowing of pus from the wound, w^as supposed 
durlnor life to have been the track of the ball. On 
an examination of the orofans of the chest evi- 
dences of severe bronchitis were found on both 
sides, with broncho-pneumonia of the lower por- 
tions of the right lung, and, though to a much less 
extent, of the left. The lungs contained no ab- 
scesses and the heart no clots. The liver was 
enlarged and fatty, but free from abscesses. Nor 
were any found in any other organ, except the left 
kidney, which contained near its surface a small 
abscess about one-third of an inch In diameter. 

*Tn reviewing the history of the case, In connec- 
tion with the autopsy, it is quite evident that the 
different suppurating surfaces, and especially the 
fractured spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnish 
a sufficient explanation of the septic condition 
which existed." 

Wednesday morning was as lovely an autumn 
mornlnor as Lonof Branch had ever known. Until 
7 A. M., the scene at Elberon was one of profound 
quiet. Only the uniformed guards slowly pacing 
the grass surrounding the Francklyn cottage gave] 
signs that there was life about. Soon after that 



SERVICES AT ELBE RON 



m 



hour, some of the doctors appeared, on their way 
to Washington ; and, as though their coming was 
the signal, the place was at once peopled. The 
guard was doubled. Carriages began to arrive, 
and their occupants gathered on the hotel porch. 
Servants, and undertakers' assistants came out of 
and went Into the -cottage. By eight o'clock 
about five hundred persons, in holiday attire, 
had assembled on the grass In a long, dense 
line, close up to the beat of the outermost 
sentries and the roadway bordering the hotel 
grounds was packed with vehicles. The utmost 
good order prevailed. All faces were sad and no 
loud words were spoken, the grief was too respect- 
ful for demonstration. There were occasional 
incidents that testified strongly to the depth of 
popular feeling. Among the crowd were many 
country people — farmers and fishermen and their 
wives. One of these, a lank, ungainly Jerseyman, 
in ill-fitting store clothes, with long, faded locks, a 
consumptive bend to his shoulders, and a thin 
goatee that stuck forward almost horizontally half a 
dozen Inches from his pointed chin, sauntered aim- 
lessly into the hotel office. In one corner upon an 
easel stood a large framed steel portrait of the mur- 
dered President, heavily draped In black. After 
awhile this attracted the Jerseyman's attention. 
Instantly his slouched hat came off, and, approach- 
ing reverently, he gazed upon the picture for a 
1 few moments. Then, noticing that several fHIes 

1 43 

i, 

I; 

t 



^j^ THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 

had settled upon the glass, he whipped a large 
bandanna handkerchief from his coat-tail pocket 
and whisked them away. For fifteen minutes he 
stood thus keeping the flies off the portrait. His 
demeanor was simply solemn and respectful. 
There was nothing ludicrous in his action, it was 
highly pathetic, and moved all hearts — that one 
touch of nature that makes the whole world kin ! 
At 8.45 o'clock a signal was given to allow the 
people to come forward and take a last look upon 
the dead face of the nation's chief. Instandy 
they began to stream toward the north-west en- 
trance to the cottage between files of soldiery sta- 
tioned at intervals to keep them in line. The 
casket had been placed upon a bier in the centre 
of the room leading off the veranda at that corner 
of the edifice. It was a plainly-furnished room, 
with ingrain carpet upon the floor and chintz cur- 
tains in the willows. The furniture had all been 
removed. The closed blinds made the light dim, 
particularly on suddenly entering from the outer 
air. A soldier stood guard in each corner. The 
upper half of the coffin-lid was absent, disclosing 
the head and chest of the President only. Two 
crossed sago palm-leaves lay upon the lower half. 
There were no flowers. As the people entered, 
they divided and passed by on both sides of the 
coffin at once, going out of a door leading toward 
the sea. Those who were disposed to linger were 
hurried on by the guards. The President's face 



VIEWING THE REMAINS. 



715 



was ghastly. The skin was drawn tightly over 
the projecting bones, except on the forehead, 
There it was deeply corrugated The lips were 
apart, disclosing the set teeth. The hair had 
whitened perceptibly. No signs of the parotid 
swelling or incisions were visible, but the face was 
blotched and covered with black specks — the 
result, partly, of the taking of a plaster cast 
of the face. A similar operation on the right 
hand had disfiofured it so that It was deemed best 
to conceal it. It lay stiffly along the side. The 
. left hand was thrust partly within the buttoned 
coat in the attitude which was a favorite one with 
General Garfield in life. The body was attired in 
the same suit of black clothing which he wore at 
the inauguration ceremonies last March, and the 
same black satin tie was knotted under his collar 
points. 

For an hour the people passed in and out, with 
occasional breaks in the steady stream. At 9.30, 
carriages containing Chief-Justice Waite. of the 
Supreme Court ; Secretary and Mrs. Blaine, 
Secretary and Mrs. WIndom, Secretary and Mrs. 
Hunt, Postmaster-General and Mrs. James, Sec- 
retaries Lincoln and Kirkwood, Ridgly Hunt, son 
of the Secretary of the Navy ; C. F. James, son of 
the Postmaster-General ; Chief Clerk John R. Van 
Wormer, of the Post Office Department; Mr. Jay 
Stone, Private Secretary of Secretary Lincoln, and 
Superintendent John Jamison, of the Railway Mail 



7i6 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 



Service, drove up from the West End, and the 
sentries threw forward their muskets and refuse( 
to allow any more to enter. The family and inti-!! 
mate friends took a last and affecting look at the' 
remains, and then the undertaker shut out the 
lig-ht from Tames A. Garfield's face forever. 

At Mrs. Garfield's request, the Rev. Charles J. 
Young, of Long Branch, held a short funeral 
service. Opening the Scriptures, he read from 
Revelation, xiv, 13 : 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, that 
they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." 

" We know," he said, " that if ouf earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we 
are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, 
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with 
the Lord. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I am in a strait 
betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far 
better ; there the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 
And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying ; neither shall 
there be any more pain. And there shall be no night there, and they need 
no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and 
they shall reign for ever and ever. Behold, I show you a myster}'. We 
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye, at the last trump. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 
and this mortal must put on immortality ; so when this corruptible shall 
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed 
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be 
to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us 
pray. 

" O Thou who walked through the grave of Bethany, that open grave of 
the brother in Bethany ! O Thou who hadst compassion on th^ widow of 
Nain as she bore her beloved dead ! O Thou who are the same yesterday, 
to-day and forever, in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, have 



THE BRIEF PR A YER. 



717 



mercy upon us at this hour, when our souls have nowhere else to fly ! But 
we fly to Thee. Thou knowest these sorrows that we bow under. O Thou 
God of the widow, help this stricken heart before Thee. Help these 
children and those that are not here. Be their father. Help her in the 
distant State who watched over him in childhood. Help this nation that 
is to-day bleeding and bowed before Thee. O sanctify this heavy chastise- 
ment to its good. Help those associated with him in the Government. O 
Lord, grant from the darkness of this night of sorrow there may arise a 
better day for the glory of God and the good of man. We thank Thee for 
the record of the life that is closed, for its heroic devotion to principle. We 
thank Thee, O Thou Lord, that he was Thy servant, that he preached Thee, 
Thy noble life and example, and that we can say of him now, * Blessed are 
the dead who die in the Lord, their works do follow them.' Now, Lord, 
go with this sorrowing company in this last sad journey. Go, bear them 
up and strengthen them. O God, bring us all at last to the morning that 
has no shadow, the home that has no tears, the land that has no death, for 
Christ's sake. Amen." 

A short prayer followed, Impressive, solemn, an 
appeal to the Great Creator for guidance and help, 
to bless the blow that had struck the nation, and 
the service was over. During its continuance, 
the funeral train backed up around the curve of 
the temporary track, until the side door of the 
second of the four cars was directly opposite the 
cottage balcony, fronting the sea. This was the 
one destined to carry the President's body. It was 
numbered 497. The seats had been removed, and 
the entire interior, except the windows and the 
floor, which was carpeted, had been covered with 
black cloth. This was relieved by a cornice com- 
posed of small flags festooned closely together, 
their points of jointure being covered with black 
rosettes. The exteriors of all the cars were 
paneled with black cloth, plaited toward the centre, 



7i8 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



and there set off with rosettes. Very little of the 
dark red wood-work was visible. The end car 
was another sectional car for baggage and pas- 
seno-ers. It was numbered 248. On the other 
side of the hearse car was a first-class passenger 
car — not a parlor car — intended for President 
Arthur, the members of the Cabinet and their 
friends. It was numbered 395. The first car on 
the temporary track was President Robert's 
special drawing-room car, No. 120, in which Mrs. 
Garfield and her household rode to Long Branch, 
and in which she was to return to Washington. 
Behind it was attached engine No. 4, on the sides 
of which black drapery fluttered in the breeze. 

At 9.46 o'clock the Governor of New Jersey, 
and his staff marched into the cottage in double 
file. They were accompanied by several members 
of the Legislature and Representatives of the 
State In Congress. Hardly had they disappeared 
through the rear door, than another procession, 
also in double file, walked out of the front door 
in the opposite direction. Every head was bared 
Instantly. General Swalm led the way. Next 
came Mrs. Garfield, with her arm through that of 
her son Harry. Her long crape veil concealed 
her features, but she walked with a quick, springy- 
step, and mounted the steps of the parlor car 
without assistance. Behind her came Miss Mollie 
Garfield and Colonel Rockwell's daughter. Miss 
Mollie's eyes were red with much weeping, but 



Ei^ ROUTE TO VVASHINGTOIT, 



719 



her manner was entirely composed. Colonel and 
Mrs. Rockwell, Dr. Boynton, and C. O. Rockwell, 
and Private Secretary Brown and Executive Sec- 
retary Young follov ?id, and all entered car No. 
1 20. A moment later, six undertaker's assistants, 
slowly carrying the coffin, appeared upon the cot- 
tage balcony. They took It into car No. 497 and 
placed it upon a draped dais in the centre. A 
tall cross of yellow and white rosebuds, carnations, 
tuberoses and smilax stood on the carpet in front 
so that its top leaned against the head of the cas- 
ket. A large pillow of similar flowers was laid 
upon the floor at the foot. Four regular soldiers 
seated themselves on guard, one in each corner. 
The members of the Cabinet and their wives en- 
tered the second car, as did also Chief-Justice 
Walte, the sons of Secretary Hunt and Post- 
master-Generah James, Messrs. Van Warner and 
Jamison, of the Post Office Department; Colonel 
Corbin, ex-Sheriff Daggett, of Brooklyn ; Dr. 
Revburn, and the late President's attendants. A 
squad of ten soldiers and a Corporal of the First 
Artillery, under command of Lieutenant Patter- 
son, marched around the cottage with arms re- 
versed, and took seats in the first car. A little delay 
followed, but at length, at 10.01 o'clock, the train 
moved slowly forward. At the same Instant the 
little Elberon church bell began to toll, and the 
multitude doffed their hats In silence. The train 
stopped on the main track, about 300 yards to the 



720 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



north of Elberon depot, and engine No. 658, which 
had brought the sick President to Long Branch, 
backed up and was made fast to it. The same 
engineer, conductor and ot! -r employes of the -^ 
Pennsylvania Railroad who ofiiciated then, were in 
charore now. At I2.i2]4 the conductor shouted 
" all right," and the train started on its melancholy 
journey to the capital so different from that strange 
wild ride to the sea, when the dying President was j 
borne away from the capital on the hopes and 
prayers of all nations. 

The journey from the ocean to Washington was 
sombre in the extreme. The drapery of mourn- 
ing was almost everywhere to be seen. Flags' 
were flying at half-mast, and festoons of black 
hunof even from the roofs of ereat factories. In the 
sparsely settled country, farmers and women and 
children were standinor in the fields. At Princeton 
Junction the students had covered the iron rails 
with beautiful flowers in great profusion and the 
bells were tolling. All along the line the people 
had gathered to pay their last tribute of respect 
to the dead and silently offer sympathy to the 
stricken relatives and friends. At Philadelphia 
there were great crowds at every spot from which 
the train could be seen. The bridges which span 
the track were filled with silent people, and the 
banks by the side of the railway were thickly 
covered. All were thoughtful and serious ; even 
the children were under the shadow of the na- 



ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON. 



721 



tlon's loss and stood in silence. As the train 
passed on, the same scenes were repeated. The 
people of the United States had abandoned busi- 
ness and pleasure, and through their ranks the 
dead body of the President was swiftly passing to 
the capital. 

The special train was preceded by the limited 
express, which is due in Washington at 4 o'clock. 
Upon it were Dr. Woodward, Dr. Barnes, Dr. 
Lamb, Senator Jones, of Nevada, who joined 
the party on the special train at Gray's Ferry ; 
Senator Kellogg, Frederick Douglass, and other 
prominent gentlemen. Soon after it reached 
the depot it was taken away, and the terminus of 
the track was made clear for the train, which was 
close behind it. Upon the platform were long 
lines of army and navy officers, led by General 
Sherman and Rear- Admiral Nichols. The station 
was heavily draped In mourning. In the streets 
around it were thousands of people, and the 
military and civic bodies which were to form part 
of the escort. The windows of the adjoining 
houses and hotels were filled with men and 
women. 

At 4.29 the special train was seen rounding the 
\ curve below the station, and almost immediately 
afterward it slowly entered the depot. All heads 
were uncovered as the heavily draped engine and 
cars rolled in. The engine was the one which 
had drawn the suffering President to Elberon. 



y22 '^^^ ^^^'^ OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

For a moment there was no sound. The crape- 
covered train seemed to be a messenger from 
another world. Then the widow of the President, 
heavily veiled and in deep mourning, descended 
from one of the cars assisted by Secretary Blaine, 
whose pale face and heavy eyes betoken the suf- 
fering through which he has been passing. Then 
came the President's son Harry. Supported by 
these two, one upon each side, the noble woman 
walked slowly toward the exit. These three were 
followed by General Swaim, Colonel Rockwell, Mrs. 
Rockwell, Mollie Garfield, Lulu Rockwell, and other 
members of the little band of relatives and friends 
whose untirine devotion to the sufferinof President 
has become known to all the world. In the group 
were Dr. Boynton and Marshal Henry, arm in 
arm. The doctor, sadly worn by sleepless watch- 
ing and anxiety, seemed to be struggling to sup- 
press emotion which threatened to overcome him. 
The honest face of the sturdy Marshal was gloomy 
and despondent. Near these was the tall form of 
President Arthur, and close at hand were Chief- 
Justice Waite and ex-President Grant. The mem- 
bers of the Cabinet completed the party. Then 
the coffin containing the body of the President 
was taken from the car and placed .upon the 
shoulders of eight United States artillerymen, who 
bore it slowly toward the gate. Just before reach- 
ing the street, they halted, and then from the band 
in waiting outside came the strains of " Nearer, 



TO THE CAPITOL. «2-2 

my God, to Thee," played with rare tenderness. 
The occasion was one that brought tears into 
many eyes. When the last note had died away, 
the coffin was placed in the hearse. 

The funeral train was not expected to reach 
WashincTton until between four and five o'clock in 
the afternoon, but as early as one o'clock people 
began to assemble about the depot and to take 
up favorable positions on Pennsylvania Avenue, 
to witness the cortege as it moved to the Capitol. 
Before four o'clock the crowds about the depot 
were so larofe that the runnino- of the street-cars 
had to be suspended, while Pennsylvania Avenue, 
from Sixth Street to the Capitol, was literally 
blockaded with all classes. The funeral proces- 
sion was to move directly to the east front of the 
Capitol by way of Pennsylvania Avenue, the 
marching distance being about three-quarters of 
a mile. Policemen, mounted and on foot, guarded 
both sides of the broad avenue, to prevent the 
crowds from pressing on the flanks of the proces- 
sion and to keep all vehicles from driving on or 
crossing over it while the procession was in motion. 
Ropes were stretched along the curb lines, and 
behind these the people were packed so closely 
that locomotion was Impossible. Not only were 
the sidewalks filled with sorrowing people, anxious 
to witness the funeral honors paid the late Presi- 
dent, but the windows and roofs of houses on 
'both sides of the avenue were crowded with spec- 



y2A THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

tators, while the Capitol Park and the terraces 
and esplanade of the great white building, beneath 
whose dome the body of the dead President is 
now temporarily resting, were crowded with those 
w^ho sought that locality to witness the sad pageant. 
About three o'clock the several military corps 
designated to escort the body to the Capitol, began 
to arrive and take position at the railroad depot. 
Long before the train arrived, everything was in 
readiness. The military formed a long line, 
stretching southward along Sixth Street in front 
of the depot and its grounds, and to the left of 
the military were several commanderies of Knights 
Templar and other Masonic bodies, the late Presi- 
dent havine been a member of the order within 
the jurisdiction of Washington. 

At 4.30 o'clock the bugle of General Ayres, 
commanding the escort, sounded the "assembly," 
which was the signal of the approach of the funeral 
train, and before the harsh notes of the bugle had 
died away, the train with its sombre trimmings 
and decorations w^as seen winding gracefully 
around the curve that terminates v/ithin the depot 
limits. Those persons wdio were admitted to the 
depot stood with uncovered heads as Mrs. Gar- 
field and others of the late President's family and 
official household passed out to the carriages that 
w^ere waitine to receive them. As soon as those 
who accompanied the body from Long Branch had 
left the depot, eight non-commissioned officers of 



THE PROCESSIOA. 



725 



the Second Artillery, detailed for the purpose, 
lifted the body of President Garfield from the car 
and bore it along the platform to the main room 
of the depot, approaching within a few feet of the 
spot where he fell when struck by the bullet of the 
assassin, and passing out of the east, or Sixth 
Street door, deposited the coffin with its precious 
contents on the hearse, the troops presenting arms 
and the Marine Band playing " Nearer, my God, 
to Thee." Following the body came officers of 
the army and navy to the number of about two 
hundred, wearing the full-dress uniform of their 
respective ranks, and headed by General Sher- 
man and Admiral Nichols, respectively. These 
officers formed in ranks of two on each side of the 
hearse, the army officers being on the right, and 
the lines extendinof for some distance behind the 
funeral car, which was drawn by six gray horses, 
each horse being led by a colored groom, and 
grooms and horses wearing the customar}^ mourn- 
ing trappings. Preceding the hearse were car- 
riages containinof President Arthur, members of 
the Cabinet, and others who were close to the late 
President. Mrs. Garfield, Miss Mollie and Harr}- 
Garfield, after entering their own carriage, were 
driven directly to the house of Attorney-General 
MacVeagh, whose guests they will remain until they 
leave Washineton. The carriao-es were filled in 
the following order: First carriage, Mrs. Garfield, 
Miss Mollie and Harry Garfield, Mrs. Rockwell 



726 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



and daughter; second, Mrs. MacVeagh and Mrs. 
Lincoln ; diird, Mrs. Blaine and Mrs. Fred. Grant ; 
fourth, ex-President Grant, Senator Jones, of Ne- 
vada, who joined the funeral train below Philadel- 
phia, and General Beale ; fifth. President Arthur 
(looking sad and troubled), Secretaries Blaine and 
Windom, and Chief-Justice Waite ; sixth, Secreta- 
ries Lincoln, Kirkwood and Hunt ; seventh, At- 
torney-General MacVeagh and Postmaster-Gen- 
eral James. Then followed carriages containing 
Private Secretary Brown, General Swaim, Colonels 
Rockwell and.Corbin, Dr. Boynton, and a few 
others. 

Everything being in readiness, the troops 
wheeled into column, the bands struck up a fune- 
ral march, and the procession moved toward the 
Capitol in the following order: 

Mounted Police. 

General Ayres and staff, 

Colonel Amos Webster and staff. 

Washington Light Infantr}% four companies, Colonel Moore commanamg. 

Union Veterans, Captain Thomasson. 

National Rifles, Captain Burnside. 

Washington Light Guard, Lieutenant Hodson. 

Capital City Guards, Captain Keeley. 

Battalion of United States Marines. 

Four companies of Second United States Artillery, marching as infantryJ 

and one light battery. 
Washington and Columbia Commanderies Knights Templar, and 

other Masonic Societies. 

As the procession moved down Pennsylvania^ 
Avenue with draped flags, muffled drums and 



AT THE CAPITOL. ^2 7 

solemn music, the thousands of sorrowing spec- 
tators Involuntarily contrasted the scene of to-day 
with that which was witnessed a little more than 
SIX months ago, when President Garfield was the 
great central figure, and when drums were rolled 
and colors were dipped In honor of his Inaugura- 
tion as President of the United States, and 
when 15,000 uniformed citizen-soldiers from vari- 
ous States proudly marched in review before him. 
Then the populace lining the sidewalks manifested 
their feelings in glad shouts and enthusiastic 
cheers ; now the same populace stood with bowed 
heads and tearful eyes as the dead President wa^> 
borne back to the place at which he so recently 
took the oath of office. The procession moved 
to the Capitol by the same route that was taken 
by the Inauguration procession in March lasc, 
passing around the south or House wing of the 
Capitol. 

On arriving at the east front, the troops were 
again wheeled into line, and as the hearse and 
carriages drove up to the main entrance of the 
building, the customary salute was paid. Those 
Senators and members of the House of Represen- 
tatives who were in the city assembled and pro- 
ceeded to the east front of the Capitol to receive 
the body, and upon its arrival formed two lines 
with open ranks at the foot of the main stairway 
in the following order : Sergeants-at-Arms Thomp- 
soit, of the House, and Bright, of the Senate; 



728 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



Clerk Adams and Door-keeper Fields, of the 
House ; Representatives Tucker and Dezendorf, 
of Virginia ; Wilson, of West Virginia ; Townsend, 
of Ohio; Thomas, of Illinois; Shelley, of Alabama; 
Urner, of Maryland ; Delegate Luna, of New 
Mexico ; Senators Ingalls, of Kansas ; Garland, of 
Arkansas ; Kellogg, of Louisiana ; Pugh, of Ala- 
bama ; Davis, of West Virginia ; Associate Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court Harlan and Matthews] 
and ex-Justice Strong. The coffin was borne] 
through the open ranks by the eight United States] 
artillerymen, who carried it from the depot to the 
funeral car, the Senators and members following] 
immediately after it, and President Arthur and ex- 
President Grant, the Chief-Justice, the members] 
of the Cabinet followinof in turn in this order: 
President Arthur and Secretary Blaine, Secretary 
Windom and Chief-Justice Waite, Secretary Hunt] 
and ex-President Grant, Secretary Lincoln and 
Attorney-General MacVeagh, Secretary Kirkwoodi 
and Postmaster-General James. Next came Gen-j 
eral Swalm and Colonel Rockwell, Private Secre-j 
tary Brown and Colonel Corbin, Dr. Boynton and 
Surgeon-General Barnes. The coffin was carried, 
to the centre of the rotunda and placed upon the^ 
catafalque prepared to receive it. This was the 
same catafalque used for Thaddeus Stevens, Pre-| 
sident Lincoln, Senator Sumner, Chief-Justicej 
Chase and Vice-President Wilson. It rested on a 
platform about six inches high and rose alfoutj 



L YING IN STA TE. 



729 



three feet above th@ platform, being about four 
feet wide and seven feet long, and covered with 
heavy black velvet, a light silver bar running 
around the upper edges and down the joints'. 
The body was guarded by a detail of the Capital 
and Metropolitan Police, and the resident mem- 
bers of the Army of the Cumberland acted as a 
guard of honor. At night the rotunda was open 
for the admission of the public, and several hun- 
dred persons passed in and gazed upon the fea- 
tures of the dead Executive. 

All day Thursday, Washington did little else 
than Crowd about the Capitol, that the last tribute 
of respect might be paid to one whose death had 
been the -completed majesty of his life. The sun 
poured down with relentless heat, but it could not 
disperse the thousands who had gathered to pay 
the last tokens of respect to the dead. The line 
formed outside the Capitol was a quarter of a mile 
long, and it resembled a huge serpent, with its head 
on the Capitol steps and its tail stretching out 
beyond the long folds of the body to East Capitol 
Street. The line arranged itself in this fashion to 
keep within the limits of the Capitol grounds. 

The rotunda was heavily draped, and the vast 
dome, stretching away toward the heaven above, 
seemed in sympathy, so reverently did it echo the 
tread of the people. Floral decorations were 
scattered about the coffin, and placed upon the 
floor of the rotunda. On the foot of the coffin 
44 



y^Q ^-^^ ^^^^ OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

rested an immense wreath of white rosebuds ; 
attached to it was a card bearing the following 
inscription : " Queen Victoria, to the memory of 
the late President Garfield, an expression of her 
sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and the 
' American nation." The wreath was placed upon 
the casket by Mr. Hitt, Assistant-Secretary of 
State. It was prepared by telegraphic direction 
of the Queen at the British Legation. One of the 
most beautiful of the decorations was a piece pre- 
pared at the White House conservatory, repre- 
senting the " Gates ajar." 

The day following, Friday, was appointed for 
the funeral services at the Capitol, and at their 
close the record of James A. Garfield at the^. 
National Capital came to a solemn end. 

The funeral services were appointed for thre< 
o'clock. At eleven o'clock the Capitol was close( 
to the public that proper arrangements might be 
made for the religious ceremonies. Up to the 
hour of closing, the people continued to pass 
through the rotunda to gaze upon the closed 
coffin. Though they knew that the face of the 
dead President was effectually hidden from view, 
it seemed to make no difference in the numbers 
of those who demanded permission to approach 
near to the remains of the late Chief Magistrate 
for the last time. A few minutes after the closing 
of the Capitol to the people there occurred a sadly 
solemn scene. The bereaved family came to take 



THE FAREWELL LOOK, ^^I 

one last look, before the beloved form was hid 
forever. Mrs. Garfield, accompanied by her son, 
Harry, her daughter Mollic, Colonel and Mrs. 
Rockwell and daughter, General Swaim and At- 
torney-General and Mrs. MacVeagh, drove to the 
Senate wing of the Capitol, and, repairing to the 
President's room, sent for Colonel Bright, who was 
Informed that Mrs. Garfield desired to look for 
the last time on the face of her deceased husband. 
Colonel Bright directed that all persons should 
leave ; that the four doors leading to the rotunda 
should be closed, and that the guard should retire 
to the outside and remain there until Mrs. Gar- 
field had performed her mission of love. The four 
entrances having been thus closed and guarded, 
the lid of the coffin was removed and Mrs. Gar- 
field entered the rotunda alone through the north 
door. Not a livine soul was in the vast circular 
room except herself. She was alone with her dead. 
: Of the supreme agony of this moment, who can 
; speak ? Alone, beneath the vast dome of a nation's 
I hall, all the eloquent silence cf which spoke in 
softened tones to her broken heart, sat the well- 
beloved wife. And he, who for twenty-three years 
she had loved, honored and obeyed, spoke no 
word, gave no sign ! The ice of death was in his 
heart — great, gentle, generous — it would never 
beat more. Then, as she knelt beside the coffin, 
beside the altar of the nation's tears and bade 
Good-bye to him on earth, there stole in at one 



^^2 ^'-^^^ ^^^^ OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

of the great windows without a ray of sunshine, ,, 
the light of the world. God grant that it lightenedl 
the erief of the woman ! 

When she left, she took with her some of the 
blossoms that surrounded the coffin. At exactly 
twelve o'clock, General Swaim and Colonel Rock-; 
well, the two life-long friends and faithful nurses 
of the late President throughout his suffering, re- 
paired to the rotunda and closed the lid of the \ 
coffin and locked it, and directed that it should : 
never again be opened. This was done by direc- | 
tion of Mrs. Garfield. It was just twenty-nine i 
weeks ago at noon on Friday, September 23d, , 
that General Garfield was inaugurated President I 
of the United States, and it was deemed fitting 
that his career should close with the coffin-lid in i 
the Capitol, where it was substantially begun, 
shaped and rounded. 

The first organized body to enter the rotunda 
was composed of the survivors of the Army of 
the Cumberland, comprising not only those resi- 
dent in Washington, who had been serving as a 
guard of honor to the body since Wednesday, but 
also a number visiting from New York, Philadel- 
phia and other points. The diplomatic corps in 
full uniform came next, dropping in by legations, the 
Chinese being the first to take the seats assigned 
them. The glittering decorations of these repre- 
sentatives of foreign nations were dulled and; 
chastened by crape in every instance. The offi- 



ASLEEP liV JESUSr 



733 



cers of the army and navy, with crape on arm 
and sword-hilt, came by squads, and soon lighted 
up the scene with a brave show of blue and gold. 
The Chief Justice, accompanied by Justices Miller, 
Harlan and Matthews, in their official robes, with 
the officers of the Supreme Court, followed. Then, 
from the south wing, came the members of the 
I House of Representatives, marshaled by Sergeant- 
at-Arms Thompson. A moment later the Senate, 
approaching from the north wing, with ex-Vice- 

I Presidents Hamlin and Wheeler, soberly filed into 
itheir allotted places. They had scarcely seated 
ithemselves, when the Cabinet entered, preceded 
by ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, and President 
Arthur, on the arm of Secretary Blaine. The 
(President and Secretary of State occupied seats 
at the west end of the semi-circle, immediately 
opposite the two ex-Presidents, while the Cabinet, 
v/ith members of their families, took seats in the 

'ifront row, between the two extremities. The 
clergymen who were to conduct the religious ser- 
fvices, and the Philharmonic Society, who were to 
render the hymns and anthems, were arranged 
about the head of the coffin. 

II At precisely three o'clock the beautiful harmony 
|of the hymn, "Asleep in Jesus," swelled softly 
' forth and filled the rotunda. At the first note, the 

guard of honor, twelve in number, who had, during 
all of the subdued bustle of filling the rooms, stood 
silent and rigid about the catafalque, quietly with- 



y^^ THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 

drew, leavinof their comrade to receive the solemn 
offices of the Church. At the conclusion of the 
hymn, Rev. Dr. Rankin read a portion of the 
^a Scriptures. The Rev. Isaac Erret, of the Camp- 
/ "^bellite Church, offered prayer, Rev. Dr. Power, 
the pastor of the late President, addressed 
the gathered mourners, and the services closed 
with prayer by the Rev. D. Butler, for many years 
chaplain of the House of Representatives. 

The floral tributes, which were numerous and 
appropriate, were removed. The wreath sent by 
the Queen was alone carried out upon the coffin,j 
which still bore the palm leaves first placed upoi 
it at Elberon. Then the bearers, strong men wh< 
had won General Garfield's esteem as co-worship-] 
ers in the little frame church on Vermont Avenue, 
bore out from the hall and from the Capitol th( 
mortal remains of the man who had, for so mam 
years, made its walls ring with the eloquent appeal* 
of his patriotic utterances. The intimate friend* 
and White House official family followed after,^ 
and were succeeded by the two ex-Presidents, th( 
President and the Cabinet, and the representative* 
from the Supreme Court. Then, by direction ol 
General Field, the Master of Ceremonies, the 
* Diplomatic Corps passed out. After them the 
members of the Senate and the House marched 
slowly down the broad steps of the eastern front. 
When the body was borne through the bronze 
doors of the Capitol, the troops drawn up In line 



_« 



THE FUNERAL ESCORT. y^r 

"and facing the building paid the customary honors, 
the Marine Band, which was stationed directly in 
^ front of the main stairway, playing " Sweet by and 
by." The officers of the army and navy, who 
constituted the guard of honor, preceded the body 
down the stairs and formed in two lines facing In- 
ward, the right resting at the hearse. Through 
these lines of officers the coffin was borne and de- 
posited In the hearse, President Arthur leaning on 
the arm of Secretary Blaine, ex-President Grant 
and Hayes, the members of the Cabinet, foreign 
Ministers, and Senators and Representatives fol- 
lowing Immediately after In the order named. 
When the body had been placed In the hearse, the 
troops were wheeled Into line, and the cortege 
moved off to funereal music, In the following order: 



Two battalHons of District of Columbia Militia, ten companies. 

Two companies of United States Marine 

Four companies of the United States Second Artillery. 

Light Battery Company A, United States Artillery. 

Grand Army of the Republic. 

Roscoe Conkling Club Boys in Blue. 

Columbia, Washington and D^ Molay Commanderies, Knights Templar, 

of Washington, in full regalia. 

Beauseant Commandry, Knights Templar, of Baltimore. 

The hearse, drawn by six iron-gray horses, each led by a colored groom. 

Carriages occupieu officers of the Executive Mansion and their wives, 
relatives of the late President, ex-President Grant and Hayes, President 
Arthur, and Secretary Blaine ; the other Cabinet Ministers and their wives, 
the Diplomatic Corps, Chief-Justice Waite, and Associate Justices Plarlan, 
Matthews and Miller; Senators, members of the House, Governors of 
States and Territories, and Commissioners of the District of Columbii, the 
Judges of the Court of Claims, the Judiciary of the District of Columbia, anci 



1^^ 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



Judges of the United States Courts; the Assistant Secretaries of Stat<y, 
Treasury and Interior Departments ; the Assistant Postmasters-Generai, 
the Solicitor-General, and the Assistant Attorney-General. 

Slowly the march to the station continued. 
What a contrast to the 4th of last March ! Then 
as now the Capitol Park was crowded with an im- 
mense throng, composed of visitors, from every 
section of the country waiting the grand pro- 
cession in long lines of soldiery and civic organiza- 
tions. The contrast smote every heart. Where 
before were thunders of applause and gayly float- 
ing banners and every demonstration of patriotic 
enthusiasm, were now the quiet of the funeral 
hour, furled banners and muffled drums, and in- 
stead of the quick march of a triumphant column, 
there was the slow step, the hearse, the black 
plumes and wailing funeral music ; and in lieu of 
salvos of artillery, there were the mournful echoes 
of the minute gun. And so with arms reversed 
and banners wound with crape, the long column 
moved on through solid lines of people, standing 
with uncovered heads. Thus, for the last time, 
President Garfield was borne along this broad 
avenue, whose national fame is now increased and 
made additionally interesting, because it was the 
scene of his great triumph, of his assassination 
and his burial. 

The trip of the train westward was an ever- 
memorable one. It started from Washington at 
5.21 P.M. It was composed of two sections. The 



THE START FOR CLEVELAND. 



737 



first was composed of four cars, the second car 
from the engine being heavily draped in mourning. 
In this reposed the body of the President. In the 
other two cars were Mrs. Garfield, Miss Mollie 
Garfield, Colonel and Mrs. Rockwell, General 
Swaim, the Rev. Mr. Powers, the pastor of the 
President, and the members of his political house- 
hold. The second section, which followed imme- 
diately after the first, consisted of five cars. The 
first was a dining-room car, and the other three 
were occupied by Senators and Representatives, 
who journeyed to Cleveland to pay the last tribute 
of respect to the nation's murdered chief. In the 
second car were Senators Bayard, of Delaware ; 
Anthony, of Rhode Island ; Camden, of West Vir- 
ginia ; Sherman, of Ohio ; Ingalls, of Kansas ; 
Pugh, of Alabama ; Morgan, of Alabama ; Blair, 
of New Hampshire ; Miller, of New York ; Ser- 
geant-at-Arms Bright, Executive Clerk Peyton, 
Stenographer Murphy and Deputy Sergeant-at- 
Arms Christy. In the third car were Senators 
Jonas, of Louisiana; McMillan, of Minnesota; 
Jones, of Nevada ; Garland, of Arkansas ; Beck, of 
Kentucky; Jones, of Florida; Edmunds, of Ver- 
mont; Kellogg, of Louisiana, and Groome, of Mary- 
land. The car of the railroad officers came next, 
followed by two coaches, In which members of the 
House of Representatives were seated. In the 
first were Messrs. Jacobs, of New York ; Harris, 
of New Jersey ; Brewer and Errett, of Pennsyl- 



738 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



vania ; Wilson, of West Virginia ; Chandler, of 
Massachusetts ; and Belmont, of New York. In 
the last car were Representatives Hogg, of West 
Virginia; Townsend, of Ohio ; Hill, of New Jer- 
sey ; Hardenburgh, of New Jersey ; J.R.Thomas, 
of Illinois ; Clark, of Missouri ; Dezendorf, of Vir- 
ginia ; Nathan, of Ohio ; Schultz, of Ohio ; Camp, 
of New York ; Hiscock, of New York ; Bayne, of 
Pennsylvania ; the Hon. John H. Starin, of New 
York ; General Banks, of Massachusetts ; Repre- 
sentatives Evans, of South Carolina ; Robinson, of 
Ohio; McCook,ofNew York, McKinley, of Ohio; 
Briggs, of New Hampshire ; Dowd, of North 
Carolina ; Henderson, of Illinois ; Watson, of 
Pennsylvania ; McClure, of Ohio ; Morey, of Ohio ; 
Dawes, of Ohio ; Taylor, of Ohio ; Buck, of Con- 
necticut ; Kassan, of Iowa ; Beltzhoover, of Penn- 
sylvania ; Urner, of Maryland; West, of New 
York; Randall, of Pennsylvania; Deputy Ser- 
geant-at-Arms Rainey and Doorkeeper Field. 

All along the route people crowded the sides of 
the track with uncovered heads. Never before 
was such national mourning. 

In the depot at Baltimore were the Mayor and 
Common Council of the city, officers and employes 
of the custom-house, post-office, and the civil and 
naval service of the Government, five posts of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, comprising about 
five hundred men, and the officers of the Fifth 
Maryland Regiment in uniform, all wearing crape. 



EN ROUTE FOR CLEVELAND. y ^g 

A Stop of ten minutes was made to change en- 
gines, and at 6.44 the train again started on its way 
to the West. For the distance of nearly a mile 
on the outskirts of the city the sides of the track 
were crowded with men, women and children. 
The train passed Mount Vernon, on the Northern 
Central Road, at 6.49, Mount Washington six 
minutes later, and Parkton at 7.29. New Free- 
dom was reached at 8 o'clock, Hanover Junction 
at 8.13.30, York at 8.32.30, Summit at 8.43, Golds- 
boro at 9,02, and Bridgeport, opposite Harrisburg, 
at 9.18. The City Grays of Harrisburg, the two 
posts of the Grand Army of the Republic of the 
city, and the several Republican and Democratic 
clubs marched over the bridge to Bridgeport, and 
were waiting at the depot when the train passed. 
As the train appeared in sight around a bend of the 
river a short distance below Bridgeport, a cannon 
on Hargest Island, In the middle of the river, broke 
the silence of the night, and the bells from every 
steeple in Harrisburg and Bridgeport began to 
toll. This tribute was continued undl the funeral 
train passed out of sight. Marysville, seven miles 
west of Harrisburg, was reached at 9.31, and here 
a stop was made of 14)^ minutes to secure a new 
locomotive, and a new crew of train men. At 
9.46 the train left Marysville and proceeded on 
its journey. Cone was passed at 9.54, Aqueduct 
at 10.07, Newport at 10.23, Tuscarora at 10.47, 
Mifflin at 11 o'clock, Lewiston Junction at 11. 21, 



y^Q THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

and Anderson at 11.30. Notwithstanding the 
lateness of the hour, crowds were on hand at all 
these stations to look upon the train which bore 
so precious a burden, and as it passed by the plat- 
forms everybody stood with uncovered heads. 
McVeytown was passed at 11.39, Managunk at 
11.50, and Mount Union at 12.06, the train at this 
point being on schedule time. The funeral train 
passed Coal Siding at 12.20, Huntington at 12.30, 
Petersburg at 12.41, and Spruce Creek at 12.54. 
The train left Altoona on time at 1.40 A. M., and 
from there all up the grand old mountain to 
Cresson the track was guarded by mountaineers 
and woodsmen, who stood uncovered in the dark- 
ness, able to see nothing, yet testifying their re- 
spect as grandly as their brethren all over the 
world, and passed Johnstown at 3.1 5 A. M. About 
3 000 people had congregated at the depot, stand- 
ing uncovered and silent. The bells of all the 
churches, school-houses and engine companies 
were tolled Derry station was reached at about 
4.30 o'clock. Hundreds had gathered here, and 
the same scenes were enacted when the train en- 
tered the Union depot at Pittsburg at 5.40. Fully 
5,000 people had assembled at the depot, and in 
the streets through which the train was to pass. 
No demonstration was made, save the tolling of 
all the bells and the firing of minute guns. A 
committee of citizens was on hand, and, like the 
crowd, stood with their heads bowed and uncov- 



ENTERING OHIO. w . j 

ered. During the fourteen minutes stop at Pitts- 
burg, while the train was being shifted to the 
Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad tracks, no one 
ventured to speak above a whisper, and the fur^- 
ral party kept themselves out of sight. The train 
drew out of the depot at 5.45, and slowly crossed 
the bridge to Alleghany City, where a car contain- 
ing the Cleveland committee was attached. More 
people even than in Pittsburg lined the tracks 
through Alleghany City and the parks along the 
line of the railroad. Where it passed through the 
West Park the tracks were covered with plants in 
bloom and thousands of fraorrant blossoms. The 
train steamed out of Alleghany City at 6.20 amid 
the tolling of bells. 

The train arrived at Rochester at 7.43 o'clock. 
A large number of people were gathered at the 
depot, and Post No. 183 of the Grand Army of 
the Republic was drawn up in line to receive the 
train. A Post of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic was drawn up in front of the depot at East 
Liverpool, Ohio, which was reached at 7.58, when 
the train passed in the order of salute. A band 
of music was in attendance and played a funeral 
dirge. A beautiful arch was erected over the 
main street, tastefully decorated. The Fire De- 
partment was also drawn up in line, and about 
1,000 people were congregated at the station and 
along the track. The train made another stop at 
Wellesville Junction, about three miles from 



742 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 



Wellesville, to take in water. The car-shops of the 
company are situated here, and the employes, with 
their wives and children, were assembled in a 
body to witness the passing of the train. Across 
the front of one of the largest shops was stretched 
a wide piece of canvas, on which was painted in 
prominent letters, "We Mourn our Dead Presi- 
dent." The people stood quietly by when the 
train stopped, scarcely any of them moving until 
it again started. A large number of the male 
portion of the crowd were in a kneeling position 
as the train rolled by. 

The manifestations of sympathy for the dead 
President were most marked along the entire 
route. The houses from a mansion to a log cabin 
were draped in mourning at all points. At Saline- 
ville, Ohio, there was quite a gathering of all 
classes of people. Coal-miners, with their lamps 
on their hats and clothes covered with dirt, just as 
they had rushed from the mines, were mingled with 
well-dressed men and women. A number of coal- 
mine boys, with lamps on their hats, were drawn 
up in martial line in front of the depot. At At- 
water, the next station west of Alliance, quite a 
crowd was crathered at the station. The train 
stopped for water at Ravenna at 11.31. Here a 
large number of people were assembled ; buildings 
were draped in mourning, and there was a general 
manifestation of sorrow. This was the last stop 
which the train made before reaching its destination. 



ARRIVAL AT CLEVELAND. y.^ 

At 1.30 the train bearing the remains ol the 
murdered President arrived at Cleveland, and 
twenty minutes later the Congressional train 
rolled into the depot. The mournful journey had 
been made without accident of any kind, and the 
pageant had been witnessed by more sorrowing citi- 
zens than ever before looked upon a funeral train 
in this countrv. 

For a moment after the train had stopped, the 
silence was unbroken, and no one appeared at the 
doors or windows. Then the relatives and friends 
and members of the escort stepped down upon 
the platform. The arrangements were not of so 
formal a character as at Long Branch and Wash- 
ington. As soon as these living occupants of the 
train had departed, the soldiers of the Second 
Artillery, to whom had been assigned the duty of 
bearlno- the coffin to the hearse, came forward to 
remove the body from the car. Their white hel- 
mets and blue and red uniforms were in strong 
contrast with the dark garments of the relatives 
and friends. The coffin was gently moved from 
its resting-place, passed through the door of the 
car, and placed upon the shoulders of the artillery- 
men, who bore It along the platform and through 
the lines to the street, where the hearse was guarded 
by the veterans of General Garfield's old regi- 
ment, the Forty-second Ohio Volunteers, who 
wore the clothlncr of civil life. The commanderles 
pf Knights Templar and the Cleveland Grays, 



^ . THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 

and other organizations, were awaiting the move- 
ments of the procession. The hearse was a plain 
but costly one, furnished by local undertakers, and 
drawn by four handsome black horses, which were 
covered with black robes fringed with silver. The 
body of the hearse was enveloped in crape. A 
colored man led each horse. These colored men 
had performed the same duty at the obsequies of 
President Lincoln. 

The start for the centre of the city was made at 

twenty minutes to two o'clock. On reaching 

Euclid Avenue the scene was sadly affecting. 

There are few thoroughfares in the world which 

rival this in beauty. The broad roadway runs for 

miles between rows of stately dwellings, which are 

surrounded by spacious grounds, and shaded by 

numerous trees from the station to the public 

• square. The sidewalks and broad porches were 

filled with people. The display of symbols of 

mourning and grief upon the house-fronts was 

remarkable. Some of the larger mansions were 

almost hidden in folds of black. The pillars of 

porticoes were covered with black and white. 

Large portraits of the murdered President were 

frequently exhibited. Huge anchors of black and 

white had been placed in the windows. Flags at 

half-mast, with wide black borders, floated from 

many a lofty staff. In some of these exhibitions 

rare taste was shown. The avenue, like the 

business streets, had put on mourning garments, 



THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. 



745 



and in the outskirts of the city, where the poor 
live in humble dwellings, the display was universal. 
The procession to the catafalque was led by 
three platoons of policemen, each line stretching 
from one curbstone to the other. These were 
followed by Colonel John M. Wilson, United States 
Army, and staff, who rode in front of the Cleve- 
land Grays' band. The first City Troop rode 
slowly behind the band, and preceded the carriages 
which contained the local Committee of Arrange- 
ments. These were followed by Governor Foster, 
of Ohio, and his staff. Next marched delegates* 
representing Columbia Commandery, No. 2, 
Knights Templar, of Washington, the Command- 
ery of which the late President was a member. 
Directly in the rear of these-wasthe body of the 
President, drawn by black horses, which were held 
by colored grooms by means of silver cords. The 
body was guarded by the United States artillery- 
men who had borne it from the railway car. Fol- 
lowing the body were eight drummers, whose 
drums were muffled and covered with crape. The 
outer guards consisted of long lines of Knights 
Templar from local commanderies. These were 
followed by the Cleveland Grays, a company wear-, 
ing gray uniforms and huge shakos of bearskin. 
Then came the sorrowful handful of veterans from 
General Garfield's old regiment, the Forty-second 
Ohio Volunteers, in citizens' clothing. There 
were forty-six of these men, and they carried their 
45 



746 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 



torn and blood-stained battle-flags closely furled 
and bound with crape, as befited the memories of 
the tented field. A long line of carriages then 
appeared, bearing the members of the Cabinet, 
the officers of the Army and Navy, the Governors 
of States, Senators, Representatives in Congress 
and other distinguished visitors. 

The procession moved slowly to the measures 
of a mournful dirge. At 3 o'clock the vanguard 
reached the black arch which spanned the entrance 
of the public square. The roadways around the 
Square were blocked with people, but there were 
very few within the inclosure. The pavilion was 
an imposing structure. The floor upon which the 
catafalque rests was five and a half feet above the 
ground and was approached over an inclined plaae 
from the east and the west. The pavilion was 
square and the arched openings faced the four 
points of the compass. At the apex of the roof 
was a large gilded globe. The arched openings 
at the sides were twenty-four feet wide and thirty 
feet long. The floor was forty-five feet square. 
The columns at the angles of the pavilion were 
graced by minarets of festooned flags, and from 
each corner hung a large black banner. Draped 
field-pieces were placed a short distance from 
each corner. The facades were ornamented with 
beautiful floral emblems. Some of them deserve 
description. A large cross of begonias and ivy> 
with arms of ferns and begonias, bore a heart made 



FLORAL OLFERLNGS. 



IM 



of rosebuds. Beneath was an anchor of white 
balsams. A large Bible of white balsams lay open, 
its pages studded with rose-buds, carnations and 
^fuberoses. Part of a beautiful altar-piece con- 
'sisted of an open book of pink and white balsams 
and tuberoses, with pale yellow buds on the pages. 
A cross of white balsams, white asters, white roses 
and carnations towered above it. A tyre of bal- 
sams and rosebuds lay against a green column, 
over which birds hovered. Another piece repre- 
sented a dreary stubble-field, brown and bare, 
bearing one garnered sheaf, at the foot of which, 
lay a sickle of balsams and rosebuds and tube- 
roses, and the word "Gathered" in purple im- 
mortelles. A monument of white balsams and 
tuberoses had its base banded with pink, and upon 
the apex was a dove with folded wings. A light- 
house of balsams, tuberoses, begonias and gera- 
nium leaves, with a broad base of fern leaves 
and begonias, bore a shield on which in purple 
immortelles were the words : " Garfield — a beacon 
to posterity." In another structure the States 
were represented by columns of ivy or smilax, 
with the name of each in white immortelles, while 
over all was an arch which bore the words, 
" Columbia mourns her son." 

When the, police reached the archway at the 
entrance of the public square, the space within 
the pavilion was guarded by soldiers, who mourn- 
fully paced to and fro. The breeze from the lake 



748 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



• 



fitfully shook the great black banners which hung 
from the corners of the pavilion. As the head of 
the procession entered the public square, the bell 
of the First Presbyterian Church, near at hand, 
began to toll. The band, continuing the dirge, 
filed in and stood atone side of the space between 
the arch and the pavilion. The Templars followed 
them, and formed in lines extending on each side 
of the way from the arch to the catafalque. The 
delegates from Columbia Commandery entered 
the pavilion. The remaining Templars guarded 
the space over which the body had to pass. Mar- 
shal Henry and the local committee came up the 
inclined plane, and the grooms led the black horses 
into the public square. The Templars presented 
their swords. The band began the mournful strains 
of Pleyel's Hymn, playing softly and tenderly. Gov- 
ernor Foster and his staff took places in the pavil- 
ion, and then the eight artillerymen took the coffin 
from the hearse and bore it slow^ly up the inclined 
plane to the catafalque, upon which they placed It. 
The clay which had been James A. Garfield was 
lying in the city of his dearest friends. It had 
almost reached its last resting place. 

The scene was one to be remembered. There 
was a deep solemnity about every action and 
every whispered word. The eye glancing down 
between the lines of Templars and through 
the archway, saw the troops quietly wheeling 
and preparing to depart. So still was it in the 



L YING IN STATE. 



749 



presence of the great multitude which surrounded 
the square that the rustUng of the plants which 
adorned the pavilion as the breeze swept by them 
was plainly heard. The coffin having been de- 
posited in its place, the hearse was taken 
away. The Templars wheeled before the pa- 
vilion and prepared to depart. Twelve privates 
of the Cleveland Grays marched to the front of 
the pavilion and then, three at a time, went up 
and took their places as guards around the cata- 
falque. They allowed no one to enter the pavilion. 
The remainder of the company departed, and the 
Templars followed them, leaving four of their 
number to act as guard. Three minutes afterward 
the war-worn veterans of the Forty-second Ohio 
Volunteers marched up to the entrance of the 
pavilion, and passed out of the square by a gate 
at the right. The ceremony was over. 

The structure and the whole square was illumi- 
nated by electric lights at night. At the head of 
the coffin was placed a large portrait of the late 
President. Upon the coffin lay the palm leaves 
and the wreath sent by Queen Victoria, which 
had not been removed after the body was placed in 
the Capitol. At the head of the coffin lay a scroll 



bearing the following words : 

" Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won 
Now comes rest." 



750 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENl GARFIELD. 



CHAPTER XL^l. 



THE LAST ACT. 



A 



SAD Sunday it was for the fair city of 
Cleveland, on September 25 th, 1881. 
Right in the heart of the place lay the 
dead ruler, dead, though, only in the flesh, a Presi- 
dent of his people, still in their hearts and homes. 
An endless throng paid him the silent homage of 
respect, streaming by his coffin from early morn 
till the shades of night had long kissed the griev- 
ing city. In every church the preacher dwelt 
lovingly on the character and glories of the 
deceased. Everywhere else the masses were 
busy with the arrangements for the day following — 
the day upon which the last that mortality could 
do for man would be done, and then would come 
the tomb. 

During the night a gentle shower fell upon the 
shadowed city, and when morning was ushered In 
a bright September sun shone through fast dis- 
appearing clouds. All night the park was care- 
fully guarded by soldiery, and up to the hour of 
midnight, a throng was constantly passing in a 
regular, solemn procession, with uncovered heads. 
It is not probable that more than half of the people 



CEREMONIES A T THE PA VILION. 



751 



went to bed at all. At any rate, they were out 
again before the sun, and moving about. Some 
dissatisfaction was expressed when it was known 
that the crowd would not be admitted to the park 
during the funeral exercises, but no attempts were 
made to break through the guard, and all con- 
tentedly accepted the poor satisfaction of beholding 
the funeral pageant as it impressively passed 
alonof the streets. 

Promptly at 10.30 o'clock the ceremonies at the 
pavilion began. The immediate members of the 
family and near relatives and friends took seats 
about the coffin. At each corner was. stationed a 
member of the Cleveland Grays. The committee 
members on duty about the pavilion wore heavy 
crape. 

Dr. J. P. Robinson, president of ceremonies, 
announced that the exercises would open by the 
singing of Beethoven's funeral hymn, by the 
Cleveland Vocal Society, whereupon the hymn 
was sung as follows : 

Thou art gone to the grave, 

But we will not deplore thee ; 

Though sorrow and darkness encompass the tomb, 

The Saviour has passed its portals before thee, 

And the lamp of His love is thy light thro' the gloom. 

Bishop Bedell, of Ohio, then read some appro- 
priate selections from the Scriptures, after which 
the Rev. Ross C. Houghton offered a most appro- 
priate prayer. 



^ c 2 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

After the prayer the vocal society sang]: 

To Thee, O Lord, I yield my spirit. 

Who breaks in love this mortal chain ; 
My life I but from Thee inherit, 

And death becomes my chieftest gain. 
In Thee I live, in Thee I die, 
Content, for Thou art ever nigh. 

Hardly had the last word died in the hushed 
air, when the Rev. Isaac Errett,of Cincinnati, began 
his most excellent and appropriate sermon, taking 
as his text these words : 



"And the archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, 
Have me away, for I am sore wounded. 

" His servants, therefore, took him out of that chariot and put him in 
the second chariot that he had, and tliey brought him to Jerusalem, and he 
died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Jeru- 
salem mourned for Josiah. 

"And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing 
women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them 
an ordinance in Israel ; and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. 

" Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness according to that 
which was written in the law of the Lord, 

"And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of 
the kings of Israel and Judah. 

" For, behoW, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth tak» away from Jeru- 
salem and from Judah the stay and the staff; the whole stay of bread, and 
the whole stay of water. 

" The mighty man and the man of war, and the prophet, and the ancient. 

" The captain of fifty, and the honorable man and the counsellor, and 
the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator. 

" The voice said Ciy. And he said Wliat shall I ciy ? 

"All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the 
field. 

" The grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord 
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. 

" The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall 
stand forever." 



SER VICES IN THE PA VILION. y c ^ 

Dr. Errett was listened to with close and earn- 
est attention. He spoke for forty minutes, and 
when he closed, a hush for a moment hung over 
the vast audience. 

The Rev. Jabez Hall then read General Gar- 
field's favorite hymn, which was beautifully sung 
by the Vocal Society : 

Ho, reapers of life's harvest, 

Why stand with rusted blade 
Until the night draws round thee 

And day begins to fade ? 
Why stand ye idle, waiting 

For reapers more to come ? 
The golden morn is passing, 

Why sit ye idle, dumb ? 

Thrust in your sharpened sickle 

And gather in the grain ; 
^, .^^ The night is fast approaching, 

And soon will come again. 
The Master calls for reapers, 

And shall He call in vain ? 
Shall sheaves lie there, ungathered, 

And waste upon the plain ? 

Mount up the heights of wisdom 

And crush each error low. 
Keep back no words of knowledge 

That human hearts should know. 
Be faithful to thy mission 

In service of thy Lord, 
And then a golden chaplet 

Shall be thy just reward. 

At 11.45 o'clock Dr. Charles S. Pomeroy de- 
livered the final prayer and benediction. 

During the last ceremonies at the catafalque 
100,000 men In uniform were moving up and down 



754 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



the broad avenues pointing to the pubHc square 
from the east. The music of many bands came 
faintly to the hushed assembly about the cata- 
falque, while as far as the eye could discern there 
were moving columns of bright uniforms and . 
densely packed sidewalks. An impressive but 
almost painful moment of silence and inactivity 
followed the solemn benediction by Rev. Charles 
C. Pomeroy. The perfect silence in the groups 
surrounding the rem-ains of the President was 
broken by his faithful servant Dan, who opened 
the door of Mrs. Garfield's carriage, the first in 
the lonof line of vehicles behind the funeral car. 
General Barnett, the master of ceremonies, sum- 
moned the bearers, ten sergeants of the Second 
Artillery, who advanced in close ranks, forming a 
single file on both sides of the casket. The re- 
mains were raised from their resting-place at 12.10 
P. M., and on the shoulders of the stalwart sol- 
diers, borne very slowly down the incline, every 
eye in that assemblage of not less than 10,000 
persons followed the black casket encompassing 
the remains of the dead President, till they were 
placed on the dais, under the sable canopy of the 
funeral car. Another moment of waiting, and the 
lone line of carriages be^an to fill, minute euns 
were fired at Lake View Park, on the outskirts of 
this city, and from a hundred steeples the response 
came back with the tolling of the bells. The slow 
measure of " Nearer, my God, to Thee," played 



THE FUNERAL MARCH. ^ r^- 

by the Marine Band of Washington, seemed in 
unison with the halting of carriages, slowly recelv- 
ing their complement of passengers at the cata- 
falque, and moving away to their place in the pro- 
cession. To the relatives of the family the guard 
of honor was summoned, then the Justices of the 
Supreme Court, the Governors of States, Sena- 
tors Kellogg, Logan, Cameron, Jones, Conger, 
Miller, Pendleton, Beck, Edwards, Garland, Blair, 
Camden, Pugh, Ingalls, Anthony, Morgan, Bayard, 
and Sherman, forty members of the House of 
Representatives, then Generals Sherman and 
Sheridan and Admirals Rodgers and Stanley, to- 
gether. Generals Hancock, Sergeant, Wales, 
Admirals English and Wyman, Adjutant-General 
Drum, Chief-Paymaster Looker of the Navy, and 
Colonels Tourtelotteand Ward and aids-de-camp. 
The next carriaofes In the rear contained all the 
members of the Cabinet, General Hazen, chief 
sio-nal officer, Colonels Swaim and Rockwell and 
Private Secretary Brown. Ex-President Hayes, 
Mrs. Hayes, ex-Secretary William M. Evarts and 
Miss Lucy Hayes occupied one of the last car- 
riages leaving the catafalque. Rear- Admiral 
Nichols, Dr. and Mrs. Boynt9n, the veterans of the 
Army of the Cumberland and the representative 
delegations from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, 
Hartford, Albany, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis 
! and Columbus, led by the Mayors of all cities, 
except the three first named, occupied the last 



756 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



carriages in the procession, of which the advance 
guard was ah-eady five miles away, and even then 
within a short distance of Lake View Cemetery in 
the country beyond Cleveland. The file of car- 
riages left the public square through the funeral 
archway on the east. As column after columm of 
troops wheeled into line from Euclid Avenue, the 
procession became a magnificent spectacle, but 
the brio^ht colored uniforms and the flashiuQ^ of 
steel in the sun was forgotten, for wherever the 
uniform was brightest, the steel keenest, a bit of 
fluttering crape was fastened, while the bright ban- 
ners of the infantry were shrouded in black. The 
procession moved slowly, not more than a mile 
and a half per hour. The advance guard left 
Monumental Square at 12.20 P. M., and entered 
the cemetery, six miles from Cleveland at 2.40. 
At that moment the end of the procession was 
just leaving the public square at Cleveland. 

At 3.30 o'clock the procession entered the gate 
way, which was draped in black, with appropriat 
inscriptions. On the keystone were the word 
" Come to Rest ;" on one side were the word 
" Lay him to rest whom we have learned to love, 
on the other, ''Lay Jiim to rest whom we hav 
learned to trust." A massive cross of evergreen 
was in the centre of the arch. 

The United States Marine Band, continuing th 
mournful strains It had kept up during the entir 
march, entered first. Then came the Forest City 



f 



ADDRESS A T THE GRA VE. y r y 

troop, of Cleveland, who were the escort of the 
President at his inauguration. Behind them 
came the funeral car, with its escort of twelve 
United States artillerymen, followed by a battalion 
of Knights Templar and the Cleveland Grays. 
The mourners' carriage and those containing the 
guard of honor comprised all of the procession 
that had entered the grounds. None of the 
President's family except two of the boys left the 
carriaofes. 

Dr. J. P. Robinson, as president of the day, 
opened the exercises by introducing the Rev. J. 
H. Jones, chaplain of the 42d Regiment Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry, which General Garfield com- 
manded. Mr. Jones said : 



Our illustrious friend has completed his journey — a journey we must all 
soon make, and that in the near future ; yet, when I see the grand sur- 
roundings on this occasion, I am led to inquire, Was this man the son of 
the emperor, of the king, that wore the crown ? for in the history of this 
great country there has been nothing like this seen by the people, and per- 
haps in no other country. Yet I thought, perhaps, speaking after the 
manner of men, that he was a prince, and this was offered in a manner 
after royalty. 

He was not, my friends. It is not an offering of a king. It is not, as 
we are taught, an offering to earthly kings and emperors, though he was born 
a prince and a free man, the great Commoner of the United States. 

Only a few miles from where we stand less than fifty years ago he was 
bom in the primeval forests of this State and this County, and all he asks 
of you now is a peaceful grave in the bosom of the land that gave him 
birth. I cannot speak to you of his wonderful life and works. Time for- 
bids, and history will take care of that, and your children's children will 
read of this with emotion when we have passed away from this earth. But 
let me say that when I was permitted with these honorable men to go to 
Pittsburg as one of a committee to receive his mortal remains, I saw from 



^-Q THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 

that city to Cleveland hundreds and thousands of people, many of them in 
tears. Then I asked the meaning of all this. For I saw the workingmen 
comin<T out of the rolling-mills, with dust and smoke all over their faces ;, 
their heads uncovered, and tears rolling down their brawny cheeks, and 
with bated breath, I asked, \Yhat is the meaning of all this because it casts 
down a working man. He was a workingman himself, for he had been a 
worker from his birth, almost. He has fought his way through life at every 
step, and the workingman he took by the hand. There were sympathy 
and brotherhood between them. In the small cottages as well as in the 
splendid mansions there are drapings on the shutters, and it may have been 
the only veil a poor woman had, and, with tears in her eyes, she saw us pass. 
I asked why j what interest has this poor woman in this man ? She had 
read that he was born in a cabin, and that when he got old enough to work 
in the beech woods, he helped to support his widowed mother. Then I 
saw the processions and the colleges pouring out ; the local processions,, 
and civic societies, and the military, all concentrated here. And he has 
touched them all in his passage thus far through life, and you feel that he 
is a brother. He is, therefore, a brother to you in all these regards. 

But when a man dies his work usually follows him. AMien we sent 
Garfield to the Capitol at Washington he weighed 210 pounds. He had a 
soul that loved his race, a splendid intellect that almost bent the largest 
form to bear it. You bring him back to us a mere handful of some 80 
pounds, mostly of bones, in that casket. Now I ask, why is this ? I do 
not stop to talk about the man that did the deed. " Vengeance is mine, 
saith the Lord : I will repay." He sees the ten-ors of a scaffold before him 
probably, and the eternal disgrace which falls to the murderer and assassin, 
and he is going down to the judgment of God amid the frowns of the 
world. But where is James A. Garfield, whom we lent to you seven 
months ago ? Many of you were there at the time of his inauguration, and 
witnessed the grand pageant which passed in front of the Capitol, and the 
grandest that was ever had in the nation was held on that occasion. And 
now comes this unwelcome but splendid exhibition, that will be read of all 
over the world with regi'et ; for Secretary Blaine, in a business-like manner, 
'made out that there were three hundred million people of tlae Morld 
mourning the death of President Garfield and offering up sympathy. Wliere 
is he ? Here is all that is left of him, the grand, bright and brilliant man. 
Now that soul that loved, that mind that taught and has impressed itself 
upon the world, must come back, for if thoughts live, will that precious 
thought cease? In reason he speaks, and in example he lives. His 
thoughts and mighty deeds still flourish in structure. We shall get him 
back, fellow-citizens. 

In conversation with one nearest and dearest to him, she said when she: 



SINGING AT THE GRAVE. ^ctq 

thought of his relations as a husband, a son and a statesman, having reached 
the highest pinnacle to which man can be elevated by the free suffrage of 
our 50,000,000 of people, there w^as no promotion left for her beloved but 
for God to call him higher. He has received that promotion. He 
believed in the immortality, not only of the soul, but of the body, and that 
the grave will give up the dead. He must live, and, my friends, that was 
the hope that sustained him; It was with him in the war, and the enemy 
never saw his back. They never looked upon his back ; he was fortunate 
in every contest in being on the victorious side. But the grandest fight he 
ever made in the last eighty days of his existence, fought not because he 
himself personally expected to live, but the doctors told him to hope. He 
loved his wife and children, and he hoped. " I am not afraid to die, but I 
will try to live." And then he was not conquered except by simple 
exhaustion. 

It seems to me that no good man by the name of Abraham can be Presi« 
dent of the United States, and can be long absent from Abraham's bosom, 
for both of them have been called, and early, to the Paradise of God, and 
his spirit looks down on us to-day. He is in the society of Washington 
and Lincoln, and the immortal hosts of patriots that stood for their country. 
Let me say in conclusion : There was a man in ancient Bible history that 
killed more in his death than he did in his life, and I believe that to be 
true with James A. Garfield. I doubt whether there is a page that equals 
this in sympathy and love, not only in this country but all over tlie world. 
_ Have you ever read anything like this ? You brethren here of the South, 
I greet you to-day, and you brethren of the North, East and West, come, 
let us lay all our bitterness in the coffin of the dear man. Let him carry 
it with him to the grave in silence. Till the angels disturb the slumbers of 
the dead, let us love each other more and our countiy better. May God 
bless you and the dear family ; and as they constitute a great family on 
earth, I hope they will constitute a great family in the Kingdom of God, 
where I hope to meet you all in the end. Amen. 

The Latin ode from Horace, "To Arestlus 
Fuscus," was sung by the United German Singing 
(Society. 

Dr. Robinson then announced the late Presi- 

ent's favorite hymn: "Ho, reapers of Life's 

arvest!" which the German vocal societies of 

leveland sang with good effect. The exercises 



760 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



closed with the benediction by President Hinsdale, 
of Hiram College, who was introduced by Dr. 
Robinson. Mr. Hinsdale said: 

O God, the sad experience of this day teaches us the truth of what* 
Thou hast told us in Thy Word. The grave is the last of this world and 
the end of life. " Earth to earth; dust to dust; ashes to ashes." But we 
love the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the power of the 
endless life. Therefore, O God our Father, we look to Thee now for 
Thy greatest blessing. We pray that the fellowship and the salvation of 
the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
the Comforter, may be with all who have been in to-day's great assembly. 
Amen. 

Harry and James Garfield then entered the tomb 
to take a last look at the casket that inclosed the 
remains of their father. They were accompanied 
by Colonels Rockwell and Corbin, and, on coming 
out, James was sobbing bitterly. He picked up a 
little red flower from the steps of the tomb and 
carried it to his mother, who pressed it to her lips. 
Then the members of the Cabinet visited the 
coffin for the last time, and, at 4.30 o'clock, the 
sad cortege departed to the world without. 



FINIS. 



606 






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